HenryA.At1imsoii 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


I'los     lllii.-,lr.iliiiK'     Scmrc. 

CUTTIN'(;   S'lKKI,    lOK    Sill 


(iKlANllC    SIIKAKS. 


These  workers  arc  tlic  servants  of  civilization  and  without  them 
wc  would  have  Mo  such  trade  as  we  have  to-day. 


MEN  AND  THINGS 


BY 

HENRY  A.   ATKINSON 

SECRETARY,    SOCIAL    SERVICE    DEPARTMENT    OF    THE     CONGREGATIONAL    CHDKCHES 

AND     ASSOCIATE     SECRETARY     OF     THE     COMMISSION     OH     THE     CHURCHES 

AND      SOCIAL     SERVICE     OF     THE      FEDERAL      COUNCIL     OF     THE 

CHURCHES      OF       CHRIST      IN      AMERICA 


NEW  YORK 

MISSIONARY    EDUCATION    MOVEMENT 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  CANADA 

191S 


my 
3/ 


'Ti] 


COPYRIGHT,    I918,   BY 

MISSIONAKV    EDUCATION    MUVKMENT    OF   THE 

UNITED  STATES   AND   CANADA 


CORRESPONDENCE  CONCERNING 
MISSION    STUDY 

Send  the  proper  one  of  the  following  blanks  to  the  secretary  of 
your  denominational  mission  board  whose  address  is  in  the  "List  of 
Mission  Boards  and  Correspondents"  at  the  end  of  this  book. 

We  expect  to  form  a  mission  study  class,  and  desire  to  have  any 
suggestions  that  you  can  send  that  will  help  in  organizing  and 
conducting  it. 

Name 


Street  and  Number 

City  or  Town  State .. . 

Deoomination Church. 

Text-book  to  be  used 


We  have  organized  a  mission  study  class  and  secured  our  books. 
Below  is  the  enrolment. 


Name  of  City  or  Town State 

Text-book Underline  auspices  under 

which  class  is  held : 
Denomination ^^^^^^^  Y.  P.  3oc. 

Church Men  Senior 

Women's  Soc.    Intermediate 
Name  of  Leader Y.  W.  Soc.         Junior 

Address Sunday  School 

Name  of  Pastor Date  of  starting 

State  whether  Mission  Study  Oass,      Frequency  of  Meetings 

Lecture  Course,  Program  Meet- 
ings, or  Reading  Cirde Number  of  Members 


Does  Leader  desire  Helps? . . . 

Chairman,  Missionary  Committee,  Young  People's  Society 

Address 

Phairman,  Missionary  Committee,  Sunday  School 


Address  ttttt'tt»ttftt>t*t't*'ttt'f*'tf*ttitfttttftt*! 


TO  MY  FATHER 
THE  REV.  THOMAS  A.  ATKINSON 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  rAGB 

Foreword xiit 

I    The  World  of  Work I 

II    The  World  of  the  Rural  Workers 17 

III  The  World  of  the  Spinners  and  Weavers 33 

IV  The  World  of  the  Garment  Workers 49 

V    The  World  of  the  Miners 65 

VI    The  World  of  the  Steel  Workers 79 

VII    The  World  of  the  Transportation  Men 95 

VIII    The  World  of  the  Makers  of  Luxuries 113 

IX    The  World  of  Seasonal  Labor  and  the  Casual  Workers  135 

X    The  World  of  Industrial  Women 155 

XI    The  World  of  the  Child  Workers 173 

XII    The  Message  and  Ministry  of  the  Church 191 

Bibliography    211 

Index   , 215 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

These  workers  are  the  servants  of  civilization Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The  work  which  men  do  inevitably  groups  them  together...  lo 
Not  many  of  us  stop  to  consider  the  man  who  made  possible 

the  white  bread  that  we  eat  i8 

The  worker  in  these  mills  is  a  worker  and  little  or  nothing 

else. .  .1 42 

The  workers  on  the  sidewalks  of  Fifth  Avenue 50 

We  forget  the  men  who  are  toiling  underground 66 

The  New  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Mines  Rescue  Car 74 

Commerce  and  transportation  are  dependent  upon  the  steel 

workers 82 

The  church  must  preach   from  the  text   "  A  man  is  more 

precious  than  a  bar  of  steel" 90 

Living  upon  the  canal-boats  and  barges  are  the  families  of 

the  workers 106 

The  cigarmakers  carry  no  moral  enthusiasm  into  their  trade.   122 

The  casual  workers  are  the  true  servants  of  humanity 146 

In  the  army  of  laborers  the  girl  and  the  woman  are  drafted. .  162 

Thousands  of  children  in  America  are  doing  work  which 

they  ought  not  to  do 186 

A  Russian  Forum  in  session  in  the  Church  of  All  Nations, 

Boston 194 

The  Church  of  All  Nations  provided  a  sleeping  place  for 
the    unemployed 202 


"Ill  fares  the  land, to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates,  and  men  decay." 


FOREWORD 

A  friend  said  to  me  this  last  week,  "  There  are  two 
things  that  I  instinctively  distrust,  one  is  prophecy,  the 
other  is  statistics.  Now  that  the  war  has  lengthened  into 
the  fourth  year  and  America  has  taken  her  place  by  the 
side  of  the  Allies,  I  find  my  gorge  rising  every  time  any 
one  attempts  a  prophecy  and  quotes  statistics.  All 
prophecies  have  proved  false  and  statistics  are  utterly 
unreliable.  Even  the  clocks  have  been  made  to  lie  by 
official  decree." 

Granted  that  my  friend  is  pessimistic,  at  the  same  time 
we  must  all  sympathize  with  him  in  this  feeling.  In 
writing  this  book,  I  have  tried  to  keep  out  of  the  realm 
of  prophecy  and  have  used  just  as  few  statistics  as  pos- 
sible. Most  of  the  facts  were  secured  by  investigations 
made  prior  to  August,  1914.  I  have  endeavored  to  check 
up  every  statement  with  all  the  reports  I  could  secure 
from  the  Department  of  Labor  at  Washington,  through 
the  Survey  and  the  New  Republic,  and  through  other 
sources.  I  feel  reasonably  certain  that  all  the  statements 
concerning  conditions  will  bear  investigation  and  are 
substantially  correct.  If  there  are  discrepancies,  it  will 
be  found  after  making  due  allowance  for  the  judgment 
of  others,  that  they  are  due  to  changes  brought  about  by 
unusual  conditions  in  industry.  The  principles  are  un- 
changed and  it  is  upon  these  that  I  have  attempted  to 
place  the  most  emphasis.   Concrete  facts  are  but  illustra- 


xiv  FOREWORD 

tive  of  the  principle  involved.   Conditions  affect  cases  but 
leave  principles  undisturbed. 

I  am  greatly  indebted  to  the  help  in  research  given  me 
by  Miss  Lucy  Gardner,  of  Salem,  Massachusetts.  As  far 
as  possible  I  have  given  credit  to  the  proper  authorities 
for  material  used.  If  I  have  failed  to  do  so  I  take  this 
opportunity  of  acknowledging  my  indebtedness  to  all 
unknown  authors  and  authorities  who  have  contributed 
in  any  way. 

This  book  goes  forth  to  the  young  people  of  America 
in  the  hope  that  they  will  find  in  it  some  small  inspiration 
that  will  prove  an  incentive  to  them  to  give  themselves 
to  the  cause  of  humanity,  realizing  that  through  service, 
and  through  service  alone,  can  any  one  make  the  fullest 
contribution  to  his  generation. 

"  Men  and  Things," — a  nation  is  great  only  in  its 
citizens.  The  great  task  before  the  church  to-day  is 
to  help  to  readjust  the  conditions  existing  in  all  industries 
so  that  men  and  women  may  labor  and  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  their  labor  and  profit  physically  and  spiritually  in 
the  wealth  which  they  help  to  create. 

Henry  A.  Atkinson. 
New  York,  May,  1918. 


CHAPTER  I 
The  World  of  Work 

One  of  the  commonest  sights  in  the  city  is  that  of  the 
people  going  to  work  in  the  early  morning ;  the  streets 
are  thronged  with  men  carrying  dinner  pails,  and  girls 
and  women  carrying  bundles.  Many  are  hurrying  with 
a  worried  look  on  their  faces  as  if  fearful  of  being  a 
minute  or  two  late.  At  night  the  same  people  are  again 
on  the  streets  with  their  faces  turned  in  the  opposite 
direction  going  home  after  the  day's  work.  A  few  hours' 
rest,  then  a  new  day,  and  the  same  people  may  be  seen 
in  the  same  streets,  hurrying  to  the  ever  unending  tasks. 

The  country  holds  the  same  urge  of  work.  Nothing 
is  more  interesting  than  a  trip  through  the  country  early 
in  the  morning.  With  the  first  hint  of  dawn  you  see 
a  thin  pencil  of  smoke  begin  to  stream  from  the  chim- 
neys of  the  farmhouses.  Bobbing  lanterns  appear  by 
the  barn.  You  hear  the  clanking  of  chains  and  the 
rattle  of  harness  as  the  teams  are  being  made  ready  for 
the  day's  toil.  As  the  morning  grows  older,  you  meet 
the  workers  out  on  the  road  with  their  faces  set  sturdily 
toward  the  field  of  their  labor. 

All  night  long  from  a  thousand  centers  massive  trains 
are  rushing  toward  other  centers.  In  each  engine  two 
men,  with  nerves  alert  and  eyes  peering  out  into  the 
darkness  ahead,  guide  the  power  that  pulls  the  train. 


2  MEN  AND  THINGS 

Every  few  minutes  the  door  of  the  firebox  is  opened  and 
a  gleam  of  light  makes  an  arc  through  the  darkness  of  the 
night  as  the  fireman  mends  his  fire. 

During  the  daytime  thousands  of  trackmen  have  in- 
spected the  rails ;  other  thousands  have  been  at  work 
repairing  the  ties,  putting  in  new  rails,  and  improving 
the  grade.  Telegraphers  are  continuously  flashing  their 
messages  along  the  wires;  their  invisible  hands  guide 
these  flying  trains.  In  factories,  workshops,  mills,  mines, 
forests,  on  steamships,  on  the  wharves,  wherever  there 
are  human  beings,  there  is  work  being  done.  Work  is 
as  ceaseless  and  persistent  as  life  itself. 

The  Song  of  the  World  of  Work.  You  remember, 
perhaps,  the  first  time  that  you  visited  a  big  city.  From 
your  room  in  the  hotel  you  could  hear  the  roar  of  the 
streets.  That  roar  is  made  up  of  hundreds  of  separate 
sounds.  It  is  the  voice  of  work  from  the  throat  of  the 
city.  It  changes  with  each  hour  of  the  night.  Just 
before  dawn  there  is  a  lull  and  the  voice  is  almost  quiet 
but  only  for  a  short  period  ;  then  it  takes  on  a  new  volume 
of  sound  and  grows  in  intensity  to  the  full  force  of  its 
noonday  chorus.  What  is  this  voice  saying?  It  is  tell- 
ing the  story,  and  pouring  out  the  complaint,  and  singing 
the  song  of  the  world  of  work.  The  idler  or  the  para- 
site is  the  exception.  People  can  live  without  working, 
but  such  is  human  nature  that  the  person  is  rarely  found 
who  is  willing  to  bear  the  odium  of  being  a  member  of 
the  class  that  never  toils. 

Work  and  Life.  "  What  are  you  going  to  do  when 
you  grow  up?"  This  is  a  common  question  asked  of 
every  girl  and  boy.  Yery  early  in  our  lives  we  begin 
to  try  to  answer  this  question.    Our  environment  shapes 


THE  WORLD  OF  WORK  3 

our  attitude  toward  life,  and  helps  us  to  choose  the 
type  of  work  to  which  we  think  we  are  adapted,  but, 
having  once  settled  the  question  of  the  kind  of  work  we 
are  to  do,  that  choice  eventually  determines,  in  a  large 
measure,  our  character.  Work  is  so  much  a  part  of 
cur  lives  that  it  marks  us  and  puts  us  in  groups.  All 
ministers  are  very  much  alike,  doctors  are  alike,  lawyers 
are  alike,  business  men  are  alike,  business  women  re- 
semble each  other,  so  do  miners  and  woodsmen.  In 
fact,  the  work  that  w^e  do  groups  us  automatically  with 
the  others  in  the  same  profession  or  trade.  Work 
creates  our  world  for  us  and  also  gives  us  our  vocabulary. 
A  man  who  made  his  fortune  on  a  big  cattle-ranch  in 
the  West  moved  with  his  family  to  Chicago.  His  wife 
and  daughter  succeeded  in  getting  into  fashionable  so- 
ciety and  with  the  money  at  their  command  made  quite 
a  stir  in  the  social  world.  Foolishly  they  were  ashamed 
of  their  old  life  on  the  ranch.  They  had  difficulty  in 
living  down  their  past,  and  the  husband  never  reached 
a  place  where  his  family  could  be  sure  of  him.  He 
carried  his  old  world  with  him  into  the  new  environment. 
One  of  the  standing  jokes  among  their  friends  was  the 
way  in  which  this  man  told  his  cronies  at  the  club  how 
his  wife  had  "  roped  a  likely  critter  and  had  him  down 
to  the  house  for  inspection."  This  was  his  description 
of  a  young  man  who  was  considered  eligible  for  his 
daughter's  hand.  The  men  who  have  been  brought  up 
in  mining  communities  use  the  phraseology  of  the  mines. 
One  of  the  most  prominent  preachers  in  America  was 
a  miner  until  he  was  past  twenty  years  of  age.  His 
sermons,  lectures,  and  books  are  filled  with  the  phrases 
learned  in  his  early  life.    A  preacher  in  a  fishing  village 


4  MEN  AND  THINGS 

in  the  northern  part  of  Scotland,  in  making  his  report 
to  the  Annual  Conference,  stated :  "  The  Lord  has  blessed 
us  wonderfully  this  year.  In  the  spring,  with  the  flood- 
tide  of  his  grace,  there  was  brought  a  multitude  of  souls 
into  our  harbor.  We  set  our  nets  and  many  were 
taken.  These  we  have  salted  down  for  the  kingdom  of 
God."  Needless  to  say,  he  and  his  people  were  de- 
pendent upon  the  fishing  industry  for  a  living. 

Purpose  of  Work,  Life  is  divided  into  work  and 
play.  Work  is  the  exertion  of  energy  for  a  given 
purpose.  People  accept  the  claim  of  life  as  they  find 
it  with  little  or  no  protest  because  one  must  work  in 
order  to  eat.  The  compulsion  of  necessity  determines 
the  amount  of  work  and  the  amount  of  play  in  the 
average  life.  Even  a  casual  study  of  the  industrial  life 
of  to-day  convinces  one  that  work  absorbs  a  large  part 
of  the  time  and  conscious  energy  of  all  the  people.  The 
letters  T.  B.  M.  meaning  "  Tired  Business  Man  "  are  now 
used  to  typify  a  fact  of  modern  life.  Business  takes  so 
much  time  and  effort  that  it  leaves  the  individual  so 
worn  out  at  the  end  of  every  day  that  he  is  not  able 
to  think  clearly,  or  to  render  much  service  to  himself 
or  to  his  friends.  He  is  simply  a  run-down  machine 
and  must  be  recharged  for  the  next  day's  work. 

In  one  of  the  American  cities  a  group  of  nineteen  girls 
formed  themselves  into  a  Bible  study  class,  and  met  at 
the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  building  on 
Thursday  nights.  A  light,  inexpensive  dinner  was 
served  and  the  pastor  of  one  of  the  churches  was  asked 
to  teach  the  group.  All  of  these  girls  were  members  of 
the  church  and  were  engaged  in  work  in  the  city.  One 
was  in  a  secretarial  position,  four  were  stenographers, 


THE  WORLD  OF  WORK  5 

two  were  saleswomen,  and  thirteen  were  employed  in  a 
department  store.  The  hours  of  work  were  long  for  the 
majority  of  the  class.  On  Saturday  nights  they  were 
forced  to  work  overtime.  The  average  wage  for  the 
group  was  $7.25  a  week.  Out  of  this  they  had  to  buy 
their  food,  pay  for  their  rooms,  buy  their  clothes,  and 
pay  their  car-fare.  Whatever  was  left  they  could  save  or 
give  away  just  as  they  pleased.  After  the  classes  had 
been  meeting  for  about  six  weeks,  it  developed  that  only 
four  of  the  girls  went  to  church  with  any  degree  of 
regularity.  Ten  of  them  gave  as  a  reason  for  not 
going  that  they  were  so  tired  on  Sunday  mornings  that 
they  could  not  do  their  work  and  get  up  in  time  to 
go  to  church.  When  they  did  get  up,  there  were  dozens 
of  hooks  and  eyes  and  buttons  that  had  to  be  sewed 
on,  clothes  which  had  to  be  mended,  and  the  week's 
washing  to  be  done.  In  telling  of  their  experiences  one 
girl  said,  "  Sunday  is  really  my  busiest  day."  These 
girls  can  be  taken  as  typical  of  a  large  number  of  work- 
ers, men  and  women.  Life  to  the  majority  becomes 
simply  the  performance  of  labor.  Work  is  the  whole 
end  of  existence.  All  brightness  and  cheer  is  squeezed 
out  by  the  compulsion  of  labor. 

In  a  Pennsylvania  coal  town  the  employees  of  the 
company  live  in  a  little  village  built  around  the  coke 
ovens.  There  is  not  a  green  thing  in  the  whole  village. 
A  girl  from  Pittsburgh  married  one  of  the  men  who 
was  interested  in  the  mines.  They  moved  to  this  town, 
and  she  took  all  her  wedding  presents  and  finery  with 
her.  In  three  weeks  the  smoke  had  ruined  her  clothes, 
had  made  the  inside  of  her  little  home  grimy,  and  the 
dirt  and  soot  had  ground  itself  into  the  carpets  and  floor, 


6  MEN  AND  THINGS 

till  she  said,  "  I  feel  that  all  the  beautiful  life  that  Frank 
and  I  had  planned  to  live  together  has  become  simply 
an  incidental  adjunct  to  the  coke-ovens."  We  often  hear 
it  said  that  the  minds  of  people  are  stolid,  stodgy,  or 
indiflferent,  and  that  they  do  not  appreciate  the  best  things 
in  life.  The  wonder  is  that  the  masses  of  the  people 
appreciate  them  as  much  as  they  do. 

The  Purpose  of  Life.  A  well-known  catechism 
teaches  that,  "  The  chief  end  of  man  is  to  glorify  God 
and  to  enjoy  him  forever."  Herbert  Spencer  says,  "  The 
progress  of  mankind  is  in  one  aspect  a  means  of  liberat- 
ing more  and  more  life  from  mere  toil,  and  leaving 
more  and  more  life  available  for  relaxation,  for  pleasure, 
culture,  travel,  and  for  games."  The  struggle  for  exis- 
tence consumes  so  much  time  that  it  becomes  an  end  in 
itself.  This  ought  not  to  be.  The  true  purpose  of  life 
is  not  work,  nor  wealth,  nor  anything  else  that  can  be 
gained  by  human  striving,  but  it  is  life  itself.  Therefore, 
the  work  that  people  do  ought  to  contribute  to  an  enrich- 
ment of  life.  We  are  indebted  to  Henry  Churchill  King 
for  the  splendid  phrase,  "  The  fine  art  of  living."  Wil- 
liam Morris  said  that  whatever  a  man  made  ought  to 
be  a  joy  to  the  maker  as  well  as  to  the  user,  so  that  all 
the  riches  created  in  the  world  should  enrich  the  creator 
as  well  as  those  who  profit  by  the  use  of  the  riches. 
Under  the  old  form  of  production,  where  every  man  did 
his  own  work  with  his  own  tools,  it  was  easy  for  him  to 
take  pleasure  in  the  thing  that  he  was  making.  The  fac- 
tory system  breaks  the  detail  of  production  into  such 
small  parts  that  no  one  worker  can  take  very  much  pride 
in  the  actual  processes  of  his  work.  It  is  not  a  very 
thrilling  thing  to  stand  by  a  machine  and  feed  bars  of 


THE  WORLD  OF  WORK  7 

iron  into  it  for  ten  hours  a  day,  and  to  watch  the  com- 
pleted nuts  or  screws  dropping  out  at  the  other  end 
of  the  machine.  The  pleasure  in  the  work  must  be  se- 
cured from  the  conditions  under  which  the  work  is  per- 
formed— the  cooperation  in  the  production,  and  the  feel- 
ing that  the  worker  is  a  part,  and  is  being  blessed  by 
being  a  part,  of  the  modern  industrial  system. 

Specialization  in  Work.  Specialization  has  been  car- 
ried so  far  that  to-day  there  are  very  few  skilled  work- 
ers in  the  sense  in  which  this  term  was  used  several  years 
ago.  Shoemakers  very  rarely  know  how  to  make  shoes, 
for  they  now  make  only  some  one  part  of  the  shoe. 
The  automobile  industry,  by  methods  of  standardizing, 
is  organized  so  that  each  worker  performs  some  simple 
task.  He  repeats  this  over  and  over,  but  his  task  added 
to  that  done  by  the  others,  produces  an  automobile.  In 
the  glove  factory  one  set  of  workers  spend  their  lives 
making  thumbs;  another  group  stitch  the  back  of  the 
gloves.  In  the  clothing  industry  some  make  buttonholes, 
others  sew  on  buttons;  some  put  in  the  sleeves,  and 
others  hem;  each  has  a  very  small  part  to  do.  This 
specialization  in  industry  has  been  carried  so  far  that  it 
is  seldom  that  a  worker  knows  anything  about  the 
finished  product. 

A  study  of  the  organization  of  labor  shows  to  what 
extent  specialization  has  been  carried.  One  of  the  chief 
complaints  of  the  American  manufacturer  is  that  his 
men  and  women  are  not  loyal.  There  is  undoubtedly 
ground  for  this  complaint,  but  on  the  other  hand  it  must 
be  conceded  that  it  is  very  difficult  for  a  worker — in  the 
garment  trade,  for  instance — to  be  loyal  to  a  long  suc- 
cession of  buttonholes;  and  for  glovemakers  to  be  loyal 


8  MEN  AXD  THINGS 

to  a  multitude  of  thumbs.  The  lack  of  loyalty  comes 
largely  from  the  failure  of  the  directors  of  modern  in- 
dustry to  bring  their  workers  into  that  relationship  with 
the  business  which  would  give  them  a  feeling  that  they 
are  an  essential  part  of  the  industry.  Loyalty  grows  by 
what  it  feeds  on.  The  specialization  that  has  been  going 
on  has  been  the  very  force  which  has  made  the  worker 
simply  a  part  of  the  machine,  and  as  such,  detaches  him 
from  the  business  of  which  he  ought  to  feel  himself  an 
integral  part. 

Unity  of  the  Workers.  The  extent  to  which  speciali- 
zation has  been  developed  has  had  another  effect.  While 
the  process  of  differentiation  has  been  carried  on  at  a 
rapid  pace,  and  the  individual  worker  has  known  but 
little  about  the  finished  product,  he  has  come  to  know 
a  great  deal  about  the  other  disintegrated  units  in  the 
workshop,  the  mine,  the  factory,  and  the  mill.  Con- 
sequently, with  the  differentiation  in  the  work  there  has 
been  a  growing  solidarity  or  feeling  of  unity  among  the 
workers  themselves.  Evidence  of  this  is  found  in  the 
philosophy  that  there  are  only  two  classes  of  people  in 
the  world,  the  people  who  work  and  the  people  who  do 
not  work,  and  which  is  used  by  the  revolutionary  groups 
with  tremendous  force.  We  do  not  like  to  think  of 
classes  in  America,  but  the  forces  of  industrial  life  have 
created  classes  in  spite  of  ourselves. 

A  World  Apart.  The  workers  live  in  a  world  apart. 
Unconsciously  they  drift  together.  They  talk  each 
other's  language ;  they  understand  each  other's  point  of 
view.  In  every  town  and  city  we  find  groups  of  the 
workers  living  to  themselves.  The  work  v.hich  men  do 
inevitably  groups  them  together;  and  social  life  centers 


THE  WORLD  OF  WORK  9 

so  completely  about  their  work  that  it  is  really  the 
factory  and  mill  that  mark  out  the  lines  and  define  the 
limits  within  which  the  classes  must  live.  Consequently, 
in  our  American  cities  we  find  such  designations  as 
these :  "  Shanty  Town,"  "  Down  by  the  Gas  Works," 
"  Across  the  Tracks,"  "  Murphy's  Hollow,"  "  Tin-Can 
Alley,"  "Darktown,"  "On  the  Hill,"  "Out  by  the 
Slaughter-Pen,"  "  Over  on  the  West  Side,"  and  "  Down 
in  the  Bottoms."  Just  think  of  your  own  town,  and  you 
probably  can  add  some  new  phrase  that  tells  where  your 
laboring  group  lives.  In  one  Western  town  the  com- 
munity was  divided  by  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad 
tracks.  The  boys  in  the  school  on  the  north  side  of  the 
tracks  were  all  known  as  "  Sewer  Rats."  On  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  town  they  were  known  as  "  Depot 
Buzzards."  Whenever  one  group  met  the  other  there 
was  always  a  war.  A  friend  tells  of  a  similar  condition 
in  a  Canadian  village  where  the  Scotch  boys  were  banded 
against  the  Irish  and  the  Irish  against  the,  Scotch. 
Whenever  the  Macks  met  the  Micks,  or  the  Sandys  met 
the  Paddys,  there  was  a  row.  A  large  part  of  this 
classification  is  temporary  and  need  not  be  considered 
very  seriously.  Underlying  it,  however,  is  the  deeper 
fact  that  we  have  come  to  recognize  that  there  is  a 
world  of  the  workers,  and  that  it  is  a  world  apart.  In 
this  world  of  the  workers  the  rewards  and  the  profits 
of  toil  are  barely  adequate  to  take  care  of  the  needs  of 
the  families  of  the  workers. 

It  is  assumed  that  in  pre-war  times  it  required  from 
$8co  to  $900  a  year  to  support  a  family  in  the  average 
American  community.  Since  1914  the  cost  of  living 
has  increased  approximately  60  per  cent.    It  is  estimated 


10  MEN  AND  THINGS 

that  even  to-day  with  the  advances  that  have  been  made 
in  the  wages  by  nearly  all  industries,  6i  per  cent,  of  the 
workers  of  America  are  receiving  an  average  wage  of 
less  than  $800  a  year.  "  Shanty  Town  "  and  that  section 
"  Down  by  the  Gas  Works  "  have  been  built  of  poor 
material  and  allowed  to  become  dilapidated  not  because 
the  people  living  there  like  that  sort  of  thing,  but  because 
the  returns  for  the  labor  of  these  people  are  totally  in- 
adequate for  their  needs.  The  housing  and  living  con- 
ditions of  the  people  who  live  in  the  world  of  the  workers 
is  determined  by  the  wages  which  they  receive. 

The  Interdependence  of  All.  Now,  if  we  do  recog- 
nize that  the  world  of  work  is  a  world  apart,  we  must 
not  fail  to  recognize  also  that  behind  this  disintegration 
that  has  been  going  on,  there  is  an  integration  of  society 
more  comprehensive  than  we  have  ever  known  before  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  While  the  people  may  be  al- 
lowed to  live  by  themselves  in  a  part  of  the  town  that 
is  less  desirable  as  a  dwelling-place  than  other  parts,  yet 
we  are  all  dependent  one  upon  the  other.  There  is  an 
old  story  which  illustrates  this  point.  A  boy  complained 
to  his  father  about  being  poor  and  said  that  he  wished 
that  he  had  been  born  in  a  rich  man's  home.  The  father 
told  him  that  he  was  mistaken,  for  he  really  had  wealth 
which  he  had  never  considered.  That  night  the  boy  had 
a  dream.  It  seemed  to  him  that  there  came  and  stood 
at  his  bed  a  little  fellow  dressed  like  a  fanner.  The 
boy  asked  him  who  he  was.  He  replied  that  he  was 
the  soul  of  all  the  farmers  that  were  working  to  produce 
the  flour  that  went  into  bread.  Another  little  figure  ap- 
peared beside  the  first,  a  black  man  with  a  turban  on 
his  head;  he  was  the  spirit  of  the  workers  in  the  tea 


THE  WORLD  OF  WORK  ii 

and  spice  gardens  of  India.  Another  black  man  dressed 
in  the  rough  clothes  of  a  day-laborer  joined  the  others; 
he  was  the  spirit  of  the  workers  on  a  Southern  planta- 
tion who  make  the  cotton  and  produce  the  sugar. 
Other  workers  appeared  so  fast  that  the  boy  could  hardly 
keep  up  with  their  approach — the  coal-miner,  the  iron- 
miner,  the  woodsman,  the  carpenter,  and  the  girl  workers 
in  the  flax-mills  of  Dublin,  who  produce  the  linen  in 
the  rough,  red-checked  tablecloths.  When  they  had  all 
gathered  together  there  was  a  multitude,  and  all  were  in 
reality  the  servants  of  this  one  boy. 

Our  dependence  upon  each  other  was  clearly  illus- 
trated in  the  shut-down  of  non-essential  industries  on 
certain  days  in  the  winter  of  1917-18.  In  order  to  keep 
people  from  starving  and  freezing,  the  government  of 
the  United  States  ordered  the  suspension  of  certain  in- 
dustries so  that  the  conservation  of  fuel  might  protect 
the  lives  of  the  people. 

The  Good  Neighbor.  We  are  "  members  one  of 
another."  The  basic  industries  provide  the  necessities 
of  our  lives — feeding,  housing,  clothing,  warmth,  means 
of  traveling,  and  the  things  which  are  part  and  parcel 
of  our  very  being.  The  workers  who  are  engaged  in 
producing  these  things  are  true  servants  of  humanity, 
and  we  are  all  under  deep  and  abiding  obligations  to 
them.  Just  in  the  proportion  that  we  produce  something 
that  adds  to  the  wealth  and  happiness  of  the  world,  we 
are  discharging  the  obligation  which  others  by  their 
labors  have  placed  upon  us.  The  division  into  classes, 
and  the  setting  off  of  groups  by  themselves,  the  creating 
of  the  world  of  labor  as  a  world  apart,  makes  the  prac- 
tise of  neighborliness  a  difficult  thing.     Now  neighbor- 


12  MEN  AND  THINGS 

liness  is  the  very  essence  of  Christianity.  To  be  a  friend 
of  man  ought  to  be  the  supreme  desire  of  every  in- 
dividual. In  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  Jesus 
defined  the  meaning  of  Christianity  in  terms  of  neigh- 
borliness.  The  church  must  answer  this  question :  How 
can  Christian  people  be  good  neighbors  in  modern  in- 
dustrial society? 

Neighbor  to  the  Group.  We  recognize  the  call  to 
neighborliness  in  individual  cases.  If  a  man  is  knocked 
down  by  an  automobile  when  he  is  crossing  a  street, 
people  will  run  to  help  him  to  his  feet,  will  call  a  cab 
or  an  ambulance,  and  he  will  be  cared  for  just  as  care- 
fully by  the  stranger  as  if  he  were  a  near  relative.  The 
individual  idea  of  neighborliness  is  thoroughly  appre- 
ciated. We  have  learned  how  to  practise  it.  When  it 
comes  to  a  group,  however,  we  find  it  difficult.  The  same 
men  that  would  rush  into  the  street  to  help  an  individual 
that  is  hurt,  will  live  in  a  community  and  not  appreciate 
the  needs  of  the  people  living  in  the  same  block.  The 
industrial  class  may  be  knocked  down  by  adverse  social 
conditions,  and  no  one  will  recognize  just  what  the  sit- 
uation means;  or,  recognizing  it,  will  know  how  to  apply 
the  remedy,  or  even  how  to  offer  intelligent  assistance. 

In  a  small  city  in  Ohio  there  lived  an  old  man  and 
his  wife.  Their  children  had  married  and  moved  away, 
leaving  the  old  people  to  shift  for  themselves.  The  man 
was  nearly  blind  and  his  wife  was  paralyzed  and  unable 
to  take  care  of  herself.  The  neighbors  used  to  go  to 
see  them  once  in  a  while  but  no  one  felt  any  special 
responsibility  for  them  and  the  community  knew  very 
little  about  the  conditions  under  which  they  lived.  One 
of  the  neighbors  remarked  one  day  that  he  had  not  seen 


THE  WORLD  OF  WORK  13 

anybody  around  the  house  and  no  smoke  coming  from 
the  chimney.  An  investigation  was  made  and  it  was 
found  that  the  old  man  had  been  dead  three  days  and 
was  lying  in  bed  with  his  paralyzed  wife  who  could  not 
help  herself,  nor  could  call  for  assistance.  For  three 
days  she  had  been  suffering  unspeakable  agony  beside  the 
form  of  her  dead  husband.  The  whole  community  was 
shocked.  No  one  could  believe  that  such  a  lack  of  neigh- 
borliness  could  exist.  No  one  was  particularly  to  blame ; 
it  was  merely  one  of  those  things  that  occur  because 
the  man  and  his  wife  had  dropped  out  of  the  main- 
traveled  path  of  the  city's  life. 

The  church  is  making  every  effort  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  individual,  but  when  it  preaches  the  need  of  re- 
generation, it  must  meet  the  group  needs  as  well,  and 
the  minister  of  a  church  for  a  world  of  labor  must  be 
minister  to  the  group  as  well  as  to  the  individual.  The 
world  war  has  impressed  upon  us  many  facts,  none  with 
more  insistence  than  this — that  we  are  living  in  a  very 
small  world;  and  that  nations,  as  well  as  groups  of  peo- 
ple everywhere,  must  learn  to  appreciate  each  other  for 
what  they  are,  and  for  the  contribution  which  they  are 
making  to  the  well-being  of  humanity.  Recognizing 
this,  however,  does  not  mean  that  we  are  all  to  try  and 
think  alike,  to  be  alike,  or  to  live  alike.  As  Americans 
we  are  very  likely  to  think  that  our  way  of  doing  things 
is  entirely  right,  and  that  enlightenment  comes  in  pro- 
portion to  the  degree  in  which  other  people  copy  our 
example  in  clothes,  methods  of  living,  and  even  our 
manner  of  speaking. 

A  Specialized  Program  for  Group  Needs.  The 
church's  program  for  a  world  of  work  must  be  a  spe- 


14  MEN  AND  THINGS 

cialized  program.  It  must  be  based  upon  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  facts  incident  to  the  life  of  the  people, 
an  appreciation  of  their  view-points,  and  must  take  into 
consideration  the  ultimate  ends  to  be  achieved,  the  means 
by  which  these  ends  can  be  reached,  and  a  willingness 
to  subordinate  the  program  of  the  church  to  the  needs 
of  the  group.  The  program  of  a  city  church  appealing  to 
well-to-do,  middle-class  people,  will  utterly  fail  in  the 
average  rural  community.  A  program  for  a  mining 
community  must  consider  the  needs  as  well  as  the  char- 
acter of  the  miners,  and  the  quality  of  their  work.  The 
church  is  sharply  challenged  by  the  specialization  in  in- 
dustry, and  by  the  fact  that  there  are  classes  who  do 
not  hear,  or  at  least  fail  to  heed  its  appeal.  In  the  grow- 
ing demand  for  democracy,  the  church  must  not  only 
be  the  most  democratic  of  all  institutions  but  it  must 
be  the  leader  in  setting  before  the  people  the  ideals 
and  in  keeping  before  their  minds  the  great  ends  of 
democracy. 

Approach  to  the  Subject.  In  the  following  chapters 
are  set  forth  some  of  the  conditions  under  which  the 
workers  in  the  basic  industries  toil  and  live ;  also  the 
great  needs  of  each  group  and  what  the  church  is  doing, 
what  it  ought  to  do,  and  what  it  can  do.  We  will  con- 
sider each  group  in  relation  to  the  contribution  it  makes 
to  the  life  of  us  all.  Food  is  a  first  need  of  each  in- 
dividual, therefore,  we  will  study  the  rural  workers  first, 
for  they  are  the  ones  who  feed  the  world.  Next  we 
will  study  the  makers  of  our  clothing;  then  the  mines, 
for  they  provide  for  our  warmth  and  shelter;  then  the 
steel  workers,  who  are  the  real  builders  of  our  material 
civilization.     We  are  a  restless  race,  and  demand  the 


THE  WORLD  OF  WORK  15 

labor  of  thousands  of  men  and  women  to  move  us  from 
place  to  place,  so  we  will  study  the  lives  of  these  pro- 
viders of  transportation.  We  will  also  think  together  of 
that  large  group  who  amuse  us  and  who  labor  to  pro- 
duce the  luxuries  which  we  enjoy.  There  are  certain 
groups  that  we  will  find  in  each  of  these  larger  groups, 
such  as  the  seasonal  workers,  the  women  in  industry  who 
toil.    We  will  take  a  glimpse  at  these. 

Men  and  Things.  Men  produce  things,  and  often  the 
created  thing  seems  to  become  greater  than  its  creator. 
We  will  hope  through  these  discussions  to  show  that  man 
is  infinitely  greater  than  all  the  things  which  he  produces. 
We  will  also  endeavor  to  arrive  at  some  decision  as  to 
what  constitutes  a  proper  message  and  ministry  for  the 
church  in  the  midst  of  a  world  of  work,  so  that  working 
men  and  women  may  be  protected  in  their  toil,  and  freed 
from  the  incessant  and  always  present  danger  of  becom- 
ing slaves  to  the  wealth  they  create. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  World  of  the  Rural  Workers 

There  have  grown  up  on  the  western  plains  of  Canada 
a  number  of  large  cities  and  a  great  many  small  villages 
and  towns.  These  are  the  direct  results  of  a  process  of 
civilization  dependent  upon  the  fertile  soil  from  which 
vast  quantities  of  wheat  are  reaped  each  year.  Just  be- 
fore harvest  the  sea  of  grain  extends  as  far  as  the  eye 
can  see.  The  first  settlers  built  their  little  cabins,  bought 
as  much  seed  grain  as  was  available,  and  planted  it; 
doing  nearly  all  of  the  work  themselves.  Improved 
methods  of  planting  and  harvesting  have  added  thou- 
sands of  acres  to  the  wheat-fields.  Railroads  have  been 
built  to  carry  the  wheat  to  the  great  shipping  and  milling 
centers.  Cities  such  as  Winnipeg  have  grown  rich 
through  being  the  connecting-links  between  the  farmer, 
with  his  field  and  his  wheat,  and  the  breakfast  tables  all 
over  the  civilized  world. 

Our  Daily  Bread.  The  development  of  the  grain-belt 
of  western  Canada  is  similar  to  that  which  has  taken 
place  in  Minnesota,  the  Dakotas,  and  other  Northwest- 
ern states.  In  California,  Oregon,  Washington,  Okla- 
homa, and  Kansas  we  find  great  areas  devoted  to  the 
growing  of  wheat.  The  wheat  that  is  put  on  the  market 
is  of  two  general  varieties :  what  is  known  as  winter 
wheat  sown  in  the  autumn,  and  spring  wheat  that  is  sown 

17 


i8  MEM  AND  THINGS 

early  in  the  spring.  These  great  wlieat  areas  have  been 
called  the  bread-basket  of  the  Western  world.  Few  of 
us  realized  the  importance  of  wheat  to  the  life  of  the 
world  until  Mr.  Hoover  began  to  tell  us  that  we  must 
save  it  by  having  wheatless  days  and  by  eating  more 
corn  bread  and  war-breads  of  various  kinds.  The  total 
annual  consumption  of  wheat  is  974,485,000  bushels, 
and  of  this  amount  the  United  States  produced,  in  1917, 
678,000,000  bushels.  The  needs  of  the  world  have  been 
figured  as  calling  for  about  20  per  cent,  advance  upon 
all  that  is  available  under  normal  conditions. 

Not  many  of  us  who  live  in  cities  stop  to  consider  the 
man  who  made  possible  the  roll  or  the  piece  of  white 
bread  that  we  eat  with  our  meal.  We  forget  the  long 
day's  work,  the  painstaking  toil,  and  the  grim  struggle 
of  the  pioneers  who  first  worked  the  land.  We  seldom 
think  of  the  planting  and  reaping  year  after  year,  the 
construction  of  transportation,  the  building  of  ware- 
houses, the  venturing  of  money  in  mill-building,  until 
finally  were  developed  not  only  the  vast  farms  but  also 
cities,  railroads,  wheat-carrying  steamship  lines,  elevators, 
and  the  mills  that  go  to  make  up  the  great  bread-making 
industry.  Only  when  the  war  interfered  with  the  proc- 
esses and  threatened  to  cut  off  the  supply  of  wheat,  did 
we  begin  to  realize  how  important  the  wheat  farm  is  to 
the  very  life  of  the  nation.  If  bread  is  the  staff  of  life, 
wheat  is  the  chief  material  out  of  which  that  staff  is 
made.  Other  grains  when  used  for  bread,  as  we  are 
forced  to  use  them  to-day,  are  all  substitutes  for  wheat. 

The  Cane-Sugar  Makers.  If  we  travel  in  a  direction 
a  little  east  of  south  from  the  wheat-fields  of  Canada, 
we  come  to  the  great  plantations  of  Louisiana  and  Mis- 


/   •« 


■'^^ 


m 


I'loss    Illustrating    Service. 


Not  many   of   us   stop   to   consider   the  man   who   made   possible 
the  white  liread  that  we  eat  at  our  daily  meals. 


THE  RURAL  WORKERS  ig 

sissippi  where  sugar-cane  is  grown.  Here  we  find  people 
of  a  different  type  living  under  different  conditions. 
Sugar-cane  is  grown  in  fields  that  have  been  won  from 
the  swamps  by  hard  toil.  In  this  rich  soil,  cultivated 
and  ridged  by  the  plow,  the  sugar-cane  is  laid  in  long 
parallel  rows.  After  it  has  been  buried  a  few  days 
it  begins  to  sprout,  and  from  each  one  of  the  joints  on 
the  stalk  of  cane  there  grows  up  a  new  plant.  These  are 
tilled  and  come  to  maturity  in  October.  The  stalks  grow 
from  eight  to  fifteen  feet  high  and  at  harvest-time  are 
cut  down  and  then  stripped  of  their  leaves  by  the 
workers,  who  take  them  up  in  their  hands  and  with  a  flat 
knife  slash  off  the  long,  bladelike  leaves,  leaving  them 
clean  and  smooth.  The  stalks  are  piled  in  rows  to  be 
picked  up  later  and  put  into  wagons,  taken  to  the  siding, 
loaded  into  freight-cars,  and  hauled  to  the  mill,  where 
they  are  crushed  between  rollers,  and  the  juice  pressed 
out.  The  liquid  so  obtained  is  then  put  into  large  vats  and 
evaporated,  leaving  brown  sugar  and  molasses.  The 
crude  or  brown  sugar  is  sent  to  the  refinery  and  passed 
through  various  processes  until  we  get  the  white  sugar 
that  comes  to  our  tables.  Practically  all  of  the  work  on 
the  sugar  plantation  is  done  by  Negroes.  These  people 
live  in  small  cabins  and  work  for  a  very  small  wage,  rang- 
ing from  75  cents  to  a  $1.25  a  day.  Their  tiny  houses, 
which  are  usually  whitewashed  and  surrounded  by  a 
little  plot  of  ground,  are  the  property  of  the  owners 
of  the  plantation.  The  Negro  is  expected  to  buy  every- 
thing from  the  company's  stores.  The  prices  are  high 
and  it  is  rarely  that  one  finds  a  family  that  is  not  in  a 
perpetual  state  of  debt  to  the  owner  of  the  plantation. 
When  the  migration  of  Negroes  from  the  South  to  the 


20  MEN  AND  THINGS 

North  began  some  few  years  ago,  a  great  concern  was 
felt  in  many  quarters  as  to  what  the  result  would  be. 
A  meeting  was  held  in  one  of  the  Southern  cities  and 
the  Negroes  were  invited  to  be  present.  One  of  the 
Negroes  said:  "If  you  let  me  tell  you  what  I  think,  it 
is  about  like  this.  We-all  have  been  working  here  for 
about  75  cents  to  $i  a  day,  but  we  never  see  the  time 
when  we  have  any  money  of  our  own.  It  takes  more 
than  we  make  for  the  things  we  use.  Folks  in  Iowa, 
Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  and  Massachusetts  offer  us  $15 
to  $18  a  week,  tickets  for  ourselves  and  our  families, 
and  a  free  house  to  live  in  with  two  weeks'  rations  pro- 
vided and  in  the  house.  Now  none  of  us  wants  to  leave 
Louisiana,  and  if  you  want  to  keep  us  here  just  raise 
our  wages  to  $2  a  day.  We  would  a  heap  rather  stay 
here  than  go  North." 

Sugar  from  Beets.  Not  all  the  sugar  that  comes  to 
our  tables  is  made  from  the  cane ;  in  fact  only  a  small 
proportion  is  cane-sugar.  Most  of  it  is  produced  from 
the  beet  which  is  grown  in  large  quantities  in  the  West. 
Montana,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Wyoming,  and  California  are 
the  extensive  sugar-beet  producing  states.  The  beets 
grow  to  an  enormous  size ;  they  are  planted  in  rows  and 
cared  for  much  as  the  beets  that  grow  in  our  vegetable 
gardens.  In  California  the  Japanese  are  entering  very 
largely  into  the  sugar-beet  culture. 

The  beet-fields  call  whole  families  to  work.  Several 
towns  in  the  Northwestern  states  have  sections  made  up 
entirely  of  Russians,  and  people  from  other  lands,  who 
have  been  attracted  by  the  opportunities  for  employment 
offered  by  the  beet  industry.  One  family  consisting  of  a 
father,  mother,  thirteen  children,  and  the  mother's  sister 


THE  RURAL  WORKERS  21 

worked  all  last  summer  in  one  of  the  beet-fields.  The 
youngest  child  was  only  five  years  old  but  he  put  in  long 
hours  every  day.  This  family  is  typical  of  many.  The 
statistics  regarding  child  labor  in  the  United  States 
show  that  the  vast  majority  of  children  employed  in 
gainful  labor  are  the  children  in  the  rural  districts. 
Thus  sugar  comes  to  your  table  through  two  sources! 
from  the  workers,  including  a  large  number  of  children, 
in  the  beet-fields  and  the  workers  on  the  Southern  plan- 
tations. 

The  Corn  Belt.  In  the  Middle  states  we  have  the 
great  corn-producing  areas.  A  great  deal  of  the  phi- 
losophy of  this  region  is  summed  up  in  the  reply  of  a 
farmer  to  the  question  as  to  why  he  was  planting  more 
corn  than  usual.  He  said :  "  So  that  I  can  feed  more 
hogs." 

"  What  will  you  do  with  the  hogs  ? "  he  was  then 
asked. 

"  Sell  them  and  buy  more  land  to  plant  more  corn  to 
raise  more  hogs  to  buy  more  land." 

The  price  of  hogs  and  the  price  of  corn,  in  normal 
times,  keep  on  a  level  with  each  other.  When  corn  is 
high  pork  is  high,  and  when  corn  falls  we  find  that  pork 
falls  with  it. 

Food  and  the  Land.  It  is  impossible  within  the  limits 
of  this  book  to  give  more  than  a  glimpse  of  a  few  of 
the  great  food-producing  industries  of  America.  The 
packing-houses  and  canneries  contribute  their  share  to 
the  feeding  of  the  people ;  but  when  all  is  said  and  done, 
we  get  back  to  the  fact  that  even  in  this  age  when  fac- 
tory and  city  make  claims,  all  values  finally  rest  on  the 
land.     The  growth  of  our  cities  has  emphasized  their 


22  MEN  AND  THINGS 

dependence  upon  the  country.  People  in  the  city  must 
be  fed,  and  the  food  comes  from  the  soil.  It  is  now 
claimed  that  the  gravest  mistake  make  by  Kerensky,  a 
leader  of  the  Russian  revolution,  was  in  not  giving 
sufficient  attention  to  the  food  question  in  Russia.  After 
the  revolution  became  a  fact  Kerensky  tried  to  spur  the 
army  to  greater  activity,  but  the  people,  unused  to  the 
new  ways  of  freedom,  failed  to  keep  up  the  processes 
that  would  produce  food.  The  railroads  were  congested ; 
fuel  was  scarce ;  lacking  fuel — the  railroads  and  boats 
still  further  failed  in  their  undertaking.  The  result  was 
that  the  food  supply  became  less  and  less  in  Petrograd 
and  other  centers.  Behind  the  lines  hungry  people  grew 
restless.  Leon  Trotzky  would  not  have  succeeded  in 
overthrowing  Kerensky  but  for  the  hunger  of  the  people. 
These  people  were  willing  to  accept  any  change  of  gov- 
ernment because  there  was  at  least  a  hope,  however  des- 
perate it  might  be,  that  the  new  government  would  fur- 
nish the  food  which  they  needed  so  badly.  One  writer 
dealing  with  this  subject  said:  "Oratory  and  precepts 
failed  to  feed  the  hungry  people." 

We  have  heard  over  and  over  again  the  phrase,  "  An 
army  travels  on  its  stomach."  It  is  also  true  that  the 
civilian  population  of  a  country  lives  and  labors  on  its 
stomach.  Food  is  the  foundation  of  life.  "  Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread  "  is  the  first  demand  of  man  upon 
God  and  upon  his  fellow  man.  The  solution  of  all  our 
problems  depends  finally  on  the  question  of  bread. 
"Who  shall  be  king?"  The  answer  to  this  question 
is  very  likely  to  be,  "  The  one  who  will  give  us  bread." 
The  peace  of  the  world  must  finally  be  based  upon  an 
appreciation  of   economic   values.     Justice   means   that 


THE  RURAL  WORKERS  23 

conditions  will  be  such  that  in  each  nation  food  for  all 
the  people  will  be  produced  in  abundance. 

The  Country  and  the  City.  Much  has  been  said  of 
the  freedom  and  independence  of  farm  life.  The  pro- 
ducer of  food  is  a  real  benefactor  of  the  race.  The 
farmer  works  in  the  open  air  and  lives  a  simple  life, 
and  so  gains  an  opportunity  for  developing  the  very 
finest  traits  of  human  character.  But  when  we  compare 
the  changes  that  have  been  taking  place  in  the  rural 
districts,  we  find  strong  reasons  for  the  exodus  from  the 
country  to  the  city.  The  city  offers  a  more  interesting 
and  profitable  life  which  makes  it  difficult  to  maintain 
the  center  of  attraction  on  the  farm.  The  history  of 
humanity  began  in  a  garden  and  ends  in  a  city.  The 
word  "  city "  comes  from  the  old  Latin  word  which 
means  the  citizen,  the  place  where  the  citizen  lived. 

The  city  is  really  the  center  of  authority  and  govern- 
mental power.  It  offers  the  best  and  at  the  same  time 
the  worst ;  has  the  best  in  intellect,  which  it  attracts  and 
claims  for  its  own,  and  it  has  the  best  in  amusement  and 
entertainments.  We  have  heard  people  say :  "  The 
country  is  a  good  place  in  which  to  rest  and  work,  but 
the  city  is  the  place  to  have  your  fun."  The  city  has  the 
best  and  the  worst  of  morals,  and  the  best  and  the  worst 
health  conditions.  Side  by  side  with  the  city  mansion 
are  the  tumble-down  hovels  and  the  cramped,  narrow 
tenements  that  are  a  disgrace  to  our  land.  The  robust, 
strong  man  pushes  his  weaker  fellow  to  the  wall.  The 
worst  forms  of  disease  and  the  most  acute  physical  suf- 
fering are  found  in  the  city.  In  the  city  there  are  many 
intellectual  giants  and  many  half-sane  intellectual  weak- 
lings.    The  man  dwelling  in  the  country  has  a  greater 


24  MEN  AND  THINGS 

independence  than  these.  He  can  at  least  have  three 
meals  a  day,  and  knows  how  to  take  care  of  himself. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  in  our  cities  have 
just  brains  enough  and  just  education  enough  to  do  one 
thing;  if  hard  times  throws  one  of  these  out  of  his  job, 
he  is  left  utterly  helpless — a  derelict  on  the  sea  of  hu- 
manity. The  culprit  is  safer  in  the  city  than  in  the 
thickest  forest.  Men  without  character  and  women 
without  principle  huddle  together  in  its  sordid  districts. 
The  tides  of  the  city  wash  up  queer  specimens  to  the 
light  of  day,  and  reveal  to  the  passer-by  the  saddest  and 
most  gruesome  sights,  and  the  worst  types  of  humanity. 
The  best  in  the  city  is  matched  by  the  worst.  Philan- 
thropy cures,  01  tries  to  cure,  what  rogues  have  created. 
Just  as  the  incentive  to  goodness  in  the  city  is  highest, 
so  the  temptations  to  the  opposite  course  of  life  are  of 
the  strongest.  The  artificial  life  creates  new  and  un- 
usual wants,  and  together  with  the  excitement  caused 
by  city  conditions,  makes  temptations  hard  to  resist.  The 
city  is  the  rich  man's  paradise  and  the  poor  man's  hell. 
The  lure  of  the  city  is  strong  upon  us  all.  There  are 
a  thousand  voices  calling  us  there ;  and  this  is  impoverish- 
ing our  rural  districts  and  making  the  question  of  food 
a  more  serious  one  every  year.  In  the  country  one  can 
plod  along  and  with  the  present  prices  be  independent, 
but  this  does  not  satisfy.  The  men  of  to-day  think  in 
thousands  where  their  fathers  thought  in  terms  of  hun- 
dreds. Hundreds  of  dollars  are  made  on  the  farm  and 
millions  in  the  city.  The  city  calls  every  young  man 
and  young  woman.  Everybody  who  is  at  all  familiar 
with  the  small  towns  knows  that  one  of  the  hardest  facts 
which  must  be  faced  is  that  just  as  soon  as  the  young 


THE  RURAL  WORKERS  25 

people  finish  school  they  leave  for  the  city.  Church  work 
is  made  hard  by  the  continual  drain  on  the  best  life  in 
the  community. 

The  Tenant  and  the  Absentee  Landlord.  Over 
against  this  question  of  the  lure  of  the  city  there  is  that 
of  the  tenant  farmer.  The  Industrial  Relations  Com- 
mission, making  its  study  of  the  rural  conditions  in 
America,  finds  that  there  is  a  very  grave  danger  that 
America  will  produce  a  peasant  class  like  that  of  some  of 
the  European  countries.  The  independent  landowners 
are  decreasing ;  in  Mississippi  62  per  cent,  of  the  land  is 
tilled  by  tenants,  in  Louisiana  58  per  cent.,  and  Kansas 
36  per  cent.  So  many  of  the  owners  of  the  farms  have 
moved  to  the  city  that  the  actual  production  of  food 
has  been  left  to  the  people  who  are  known  as  "  birds  of 
passage."  Most  of  these  tenants  are  here  to-day  and 
gone  to-morrow.  The  retired  farmer  presents  the  prob- 
lem of  the  absentee  landlord.  The  tenant  farmer  suf- 
fers under  the  handicap  of  his  limitation,  and  his  poverty 
is  often  his  undoing.  The  absentee  landlord  of  the  farm 
enjoys  the  fruits  of  the  labor  of  another.  We  must 
not  forget,  however,  that  the  retired  farmer  has  con- 
tributed his  share  toward  the  development  of  our  nation. 
He  has  helped  to  make  his  community.  The  man  who 
actually  remains  on  the  soil  to  produce  the  food  is  pro- 
ducing less,  and  takes  less  interest  in  his  community, 
than  the  man  who  owns  the  land  and  who  made  a  suc- 
cess of  production  in  years  gone  by.  The  tenant  does 
not  cultivate  the  land  as  intensively  as  it  can  be  culti- 
vated ;  he  does  not  attempt  soil  conservation,  and  takes 
but  little  interest  in  the  community  and  its  institutions. 

Study  of  a  Rural  Community.    It  is  interesting  to 


26  MEN  AND  THINGS 

make  a  study  of  the  rural  community  and  to  compare 
present  conditions  with  those  of  the  past.  Such  a  study 
convinces  one  that  the  success  of  the  church  is  closely 
bound  up  with  the  economic  situation  of  the  community. 
An  investigation  was  made  in  three  townships  in  the 
central  part  of  Wisconsin  just  a  few  miles  from  the 
state  capital.^  The  land  in  this  section  is  rich,  the  homes 
of  the  people  are  comfortable,  the  barns  and  sheds  sub- 
stantial, and  everything  about  the  farms  well  kept. 
Fences  are  up  and  all  the  buildings  are  neatly  painted. 
The  land  produces  anything  that  can  be  grown  in  a  tem- 
perate climate :  peas,  grain,  barley,  potatoes,  oats,  hay, 
cattle,  sheep,  and  hogs.  Other  parts  of  Wisconsin  pro- 
duce more  milk  and  butter;  but  the  large  herds  of  Hol- 
stein  cows  and  the  number  of  creameries  and  cheese 
factories  found  in  this  part  of  the  state  convince  the 
visitor  that  no  small  part  of  the  farmer's  income  is  de- 
rived from  this  source. 

The  state  university  is  the  Wisconsin  farmer's  best 
friend.  Through  its  instruction  at  Madison,  its  exten- 
sion department,  experimental  stations,  and  institutes 
held  throughout  the  state,  it  shows  this  friendship;  and 
the  splendid  economic  conditions  found  in  rural  Wis- 
consin prove  that  this  friendship  is  not  wasted.  The 
land  in  these  townships  is  valued  at  $ioo  to  $150  an 
acre,  but  upon  inquiry  at  a  dozen  or  more  farms  it  was 
learned  that  no  one  knew  of  any  farm  land  that  was 
for  sale. 

About  2,500  people  live  in  the  three  townships  de- 
scribed.     Sixty   years   ago   nearly   all   the   people   were 

'  Survey  made  by  Social  Service  Department  of  Congregational 
Churches,  14  Beacon  Street,  Boston. 


THE  RURAL  WORKERS  27 

Americans,  many  of  them  having  emigrated  from  New 
York  State.  In  later  years  the  Americans  have  been 
supplanted  by  Germans  and  Scandinavians.  The  old 
settlers  now  lie  at  rest  in  the  beautiful  cemeteries  which 
are  taken  care  of  by  the  communities  with  the  same  care 
and  affection  that  is  bestowed  upon  private  homes  and 
grounds.  Many  of  the  descendants  of  the  first  settlers 
are  scattered  far  and  wide  throughout  the  United  States. 
The  Rev.  Hubert  C.  Herring,  Secretary  of  the  National 
Council  of  the  Congregational  Churches  of  the  United 
States,  and  one  of  the  best  known  among  home  mis- 
sionary leaders  in  America,  was  born  and  spent  his 
early  life  in  this  section  of  Wisconsin.  The  school  he 
attended  is  at  the  country  cross-roads  and  near  the 
school  is  the  Presbyterian  church  which  he  joined.  Dr. 
Herring's  first  efforts  at  oratory  were  practised  upon  the 
neighboring  boys  and  girls  in  the  Philomathean  Society, 
a  country  debating  society,  at  that  time  a  leading  social 
and  literary  organization  among  the  people  of  the  com- 
munity. Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox,  one  of  the  most  popular 
and  prominent  of  the  magazine  and  newspaper  writers, 
and  who  is  well  known  to  every  reader  in  America,  was 
born  in  this  same  township.  Twelve  other  people  who 
are  influential  nationally  and  internationally  were  born 
and  reared  in  this  community. 

Most  of  the  people  hold  their  own  farms  and  most  of 
them  have  money  on  interest  in  the  bank.  The  few 
families  who  rent  farms  are  working,  planning,  and  sav- 
ing so  that  they  can  buy  land  and  own  their  farms.  The 
school-buildings  are  adequate  and  the  grounds  well  kept ; 
the  teachers  are  efficient  and  intelligent ;  and  the  high 
school  maintains  an  advanced  standard.    The  young  peo- 


28  MEN  AND  THINGS 

pie  go  directly  from  these  schools  into  the  state  uni- 
versity. Here,  then,  we  have  the  material  conditions  that 
would  seem  to  guarantee  success  in  the  work  of  the 
church.  There  is  no  poverty,  and  very  few  people  can 
be  said  to  be  living  on  the  fringe  of  the  community. 
There  is  no  overcrowding  on  the  part  of  the  churches, 
for  there  are  only  two  American  churches  and  they  have 
a  parish  twelve  miles  wide  and  fifteen  miles  long,  and 
the  pastor  serving  both  is  the  only  English-speaking 
preacher  in  this  whole  district.  Now  what  are  the  facts? 
One  of  these  churches  was  closed  for  a  number  of  years 
and  now  has  services  only  once  in  every  two  weeks ;  the 
other  was  also  closed  for  a  number  of  years.  One 
church  has  a  Sunday-school  with  fifty  members  and  a 
Christian  Endeavor  Society  of  thirty-six  members ;  the 
church  service  is  attended  by  twenty-five  to  forty  people. 
One  of  the  men  in  the  community  said :  "  Many  of  the 
people  are  foreign  and  have  their  own  churches,  of  which 
there  are  seven  in  this  district;  but  they  have  their 
troubles,  for  the  children  are  breaking  away  from  the 
old  churches  as  they  have  broken  from  the  old  languages, 
and  are  beginning  to  come  to  our  Sunday-school."  The 
community  has  a  good  moral  record.  There  has  never 
been  a  saloon,  except  at  one  point,  and  the  two  saloons 
that  were  located  there  were  voted  out  years  ago.  The 
people  are  home-loving  and  law-abiding,  but  the  two 
churches  are  not  as  successful  as  they  were  fifty  years 
ago  when  they  were  filled  at  every  service. 

The  first  minister  in  the  district  was  a  graduate  and 
honor  man  of  Williams  College,  and  the  church  was  the 
center  of  the  community  life.  People  looked  to  the 
church,  were  helped  and  inspired;  it  sent  out  teachers, 


THE  RURAL  WORKERS  29 

preachers,  and  other  men  and  women  trained  in  thought- 
fulness,  to  enrich  the  world.  Contributions  of  such  a 
range  cannot  spring  from  the  conditions  in  which  the 
church  finds  itself  to-day.  What  are  the  reasons?  Some 
of  the  people  blame  the  universities.  When  the  young 
people  return  from  college  they  seem  to  take  no  interest 
in  the  church.  But  the  universities  are  really  not  to 
blame.  The  church  fills  so  small  a  circle  in  the  com- 
munity that  when  the  young  man  has  finished  his  course 
at  the  university  he  cannot  fit  himself  back  into  the 
narrow  groove  of  the  church  activities.  In  sixty  years 
the  old  methods  of  farming  have  changed.  Tools  and 
machinery  are  of  another  type.  Conditions  on  the  farm 
are  totally  different,  because  the  farmers  have  recognized 
that  new  methods  are  demanded.  When  the  old  settlers 
have  their  picnics  and  reunions,  one  of  the  older  men 
shows  the  young  men  how  they  used  to  "  cradle  "  the 
grain.  It  is  an  interesting  thing,  but  compared  to  the 
modern  reaper  the  cradle  is  simply  an  archaic  tool,  and 
no  man  would  think  of  harvesting  his  crop  with  it  to-day. 
The  fields  of  the  church  life  of  rural  Wisconsin  and  in 
other  sections  of  the  country  are  "  white  to  the  harvest," 
but  the  ministers  are  forced  to  use  the  old-fashioned 
"  cradle  "  in  harvesting  the  whole  crop.  The  university 
is  showing  the  church  its  opportunity  and  at  the  same 
time  pointing  out  its  failure.  In  the  particular  locality 
under  discussion  the  churches  have  no  program.  Religion 
is  limited  to  a  very  small  part  of  life.  The  farm  demands 
all  the  time  of  the  people  during  six  days  of  the  week. 
On  Sunday  the  work  clothes  are  changed  for  Sunday 
clothes  and  part  of  the  day  given  over  to  the  church. 
This  is  religion.    The  line  of  demarkation  between  the 


30  MEN  AND  THINGS 

sacred  and  the  secular  is  much  more  clearly  drawn  in 
the  country  than  anywhere  else.  The  average  minister 
of  the  country  church  is  much  more  a  man  apart  from 
the  rest  of  the  community. 

The  program  of  the  church  must  be  made  a  part  of 
the  whole  life  of  the  people.  The  church  out  in  the 
districts  where  the  people  live  who  are  producing  the 
food  for  the  world  is  responsible  in  a  large  degree  for 
the  pleasures  of  the  people.  Country  people  find  it 
difficult  to  think  in  terms  of  the  community.  It  is  hard 
for  them  to  cooperate.  The  church  must  shape  its 
program  with  a  clear  understanding  of  the  great  facts 
of  the  community  life,  and  appeal  primarily  from  this 
standpoint  and  not  simply  from  that  of  the  needs  of 
individuals. 

Another  rural  study  shows  a  community  where  80 
per  cent,  of  the  people  were  living  on  land  owned  by 
somebody  else.  There  were  five  churches,  and  each  of 
them  was  struggling  for  a  pitiful  existence.  Less  than 
20  per  cent,  of  the  people  had  any  connection  with  the 
church  or  any  other  organization.  A  minister  was  sent 
into  this  district  to  make  a  study  of  the  situation  with 
a  view  to  possible  work  by  the  home  mission  board  of  his 
church.  In  his  report  he  stated  that  the  needs  there  were 
just  as  pressing  and  demanded  just  as  much  statesman- 
ship as  any  field  in  India  or  China.  He  was  furnished 
with  sufficient  money  to  put  up  a  good  church  building, 
and  the  plans  of  the  building  provided  for  social  and 
game  rooms.  He  brought  a  doctor  into  the  community 
and  attached  him  to  the  church  as  a  lay  worker.  He 
promoted  an  interest  in  better  farming  methods,  and 
began   with   organized   groups   a  course   of   lessons   in 


THE  RURAL  WORKERS  31 

thrift.  Gradually  this  minister  gained  the  interest  of 
the  boys  and  girls  through  baseball,  basket-ball,  singing 
school,  and  other  community  exercises  and  agencies. 
People  began  to  come  to  church.  They  wanted  to  hear 
this  preacher,  for  as  one  of  the  farmers  said,  "  A  feller 
who  knows  enough  to  talk  about  the  things  that  we  are 
interested  in  must  know  something  about  heaven.  I 
want  to  hear  what  he's  got  to  say."  The  church  in  this 
community  succeeded,  but  its  success  was  primarily  de- 
pendent upon  the  program  that  considered  the  economic 
needs  of  the  people,  and  studied  to  find  a  remedy  for 
the  bad,  and  to  build  up  the  good. 

Socialism'b  Message  to  the  Church.  Socialism  has 
been  sneered  at  as  being  a  "  stomach  philosophy."  There 
is  ground  for  this  criticism,  for  a  great  deal  of  socialism 
is  purely  materialistic ;  but  the  fact  that  it  interests  itself 
in  the  feeding  of  the  people  is  not  a  serious  fault.  So- 
cialism has  emphasized  many  things  that  the  church  has 
failed  to  appreciate.  Consideration  of  the  food  prob- 
lems and  of  the  economic  basis  of  our  civilization  is 
something  that  the  church  cannot  afford  to  ignore.  The 
great  mass  of  workers  who  are  producing  the  food  of 
the  world  are  truly  ministers  to  the  needs  of  humanity. 

The  World  of  Rural  Workers.  Figures  are  dull  or 
they  would  be  marshaled  here  to  show  that  the  producers 
of  the  world's  food  live  in  a  world  to  themselves.  There 
are  many  divisions  in  this  world,  and  many  cross-sections 
of  the  life  of  the  people.  That  the  rural  church  is  not 
succeeding  is  evident.  Its  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
past  generation  are  the  leaders  in  the  world  of  finance, 
art,  commerce,  and  letters  ;  but  are  the  conditions  within  it 
to-day  such  that  may  produce  sons  and  daughters  to  fill 


32  MEN  AND  THINGS 

the  places  of  those  who  are  now  occupying  the  positions 
of  trust  and  honor?  The  call  and  the  opportunity  of  the 
church  are  urgent  in  that  great  part  of  the  world  of  work 
which  produces  the  things  that  we  eat.  Shall  those  who 
feed  others  themselves  be  denied  the  bread  of  life?  It  is 
a  call  for  leadership,  for  statesmanship,  for  planning,  for 
devotion,  for  sacrifice,  and  for  heroic  service. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  World  of  the  Spinners  and  Weavers 

"  Now  when  we  cross  this  bridge,  look  north  and  you 
will  see  the  soul  of  our  city  symbolized  in  brick  and 
mortar."  These  were  the  words  of  a  business  man  who 
had  taken  an  afternoon  off  and  was  showing  his  friend 
the  wonders  of  a  New  England  city  that  had  grown  up 
about  the  textile  industry.  The  soul  of  the  city,  as  he 
thought  of  it,  lived  in  the  huge  mills  lining  the  banks 
of  the  canal  which  runs  through  the  city.  When  his 
friend  looked,  he  saw  more  than  the  mills.  He  saw  a 
road  beside  the  canal  paved  with  cobblestones  and,  on 
the  other  side,  the  company  houses  overshadowed  by 
the  mills  and  factories.  The  towers  and  huge  smoke- 
stacks threw  shadows  that  completely  covered  the  houses 
where  many  of  the  workers  lived. 

So  thoroughly  is  this  city  dependent  upon  the  mills 
and  their  output  that  a  brilliant  writer  in  a  recent  work 
of  fiction  said  of  it,  that  if  there  were  bridges  and  a 
portcullis  you  could  easly  think  of  their  being  raised 
to  protect  the  mills  against  an  invasion  from  the  work- 
ers ;  just  as  in  medieval  times  the  feudal  castles  were 
protected  by  the  moat  and  bridge.  The  bells  in  the 
many  towers  and  thc'  siren  whistles  of  the  mills  call  the 
people  from  sleep  in  the  morning,  telling  them  when  to 
begin  work  and  when  to  quit.    Within  the  mills  are  long 

33 


34  MEN  AND  THINGS 

lines  of  machines  set  in  parallel  rows  down  which  the 
workers  easily  pass.  Each  worker  tends  eight  to  twenty 
machines.  Here  is  a  broken  thread  to  be  tied,  and  there 
a  new  pattern  to  be  set  up.  The  clatter  and  roar  of  the 
machinery  is  unceasing.  It  is  a  part  of  the  composite 
voice  of  labor  that  is  sounding  around  the  world.  As 
the  shuttles  fly  the  finished  fabric  is  rolled  up  ready  for 
inspection,  and,  when  passed,  goes  to  the  market,  and 
later  is  made  into  garments. 

It  is  a  huge  task  to  clothe  the  modern  world.  No  one 
realizes  how  much  it  means  until  he  looks  into  the  work 
of  the  textile-mills  which  have  grown  up  in  our  own  and 
in  other  countries.  Cities  like  Lawrence,  Lowell,  and 
Fall  River,  Massachusetts,  are  what  they  are  because  of 
their  great  factories.  In  these  places  they  produce  miles 
of  cloth  every  week. 

Men  and  Clothes.  Of  all  the  animals  in  the  world 
man  is  the  only  one  that  provides  himself  with  artificial 
covering.  All  the  others  have  perfectly  fitting  coats 
provided  by  nature,  and  these  coats  are  adapted  to  the 
conditions  under  which  the  individual  animal  is  forced 
to  live.  Man  calls  in  the  help  of  plant  and  animal  life 
to  supply  himself  with  clothing  for  his  protection  against 
the  cold  of  winter  and  the  heat  of  summer.  He  also 
uses  clothing  as  an  adornment.  We  have  come  to  con- 
sider clothing  as  a  badge  of  civilization  and  a  mark  of 
man's  superiority  to  all  the  other  animals.  Those  races 
that  pay  the  least  attention  to  clothing  are  the  lowest  in 
the  scale  of  civilization.  Such  races  are  found  in  South 
America,  in  Central  Africa,  and  on  some  of  the  islands 
of  the  South  Seas.  There  is  scarcely  a  trace  of  civiliza- 
tion to  be  found  among  them.     They  have  a  kind  of 


THE  SPINNERS  AND  WEAVERS  35 

community  life,  but  they  live  in  a  most  primitive  fashion. 
Their  food  consists  chiefly  of  roots,  plants,  fish,  and 
game  which  can  be  easily  secured.  They  have  rude 
shelters  or  crude  huts;  wear  very  little  clothing;  and 
their  religion  is  a  belief  in  witches  and  evil  spirits. 
Where  they  have  idols  they  are  of  the  most  hideous 
workmanship,  representing  in  a  most  grotesque  way  bad 
influences  and  vicious  passions. 

The  Materials.  The  first  clothing  man  wore  was 
made  from  the  skins  of  animals  and  from  the  bark  of 
trees.  Later  on  it  was  learned  that  wool  could  be  spun, 
and  that  by  using  crude  needles  cloth  could  be 
sewed  together.  Wool,  silk,  cotton,  linen,  paper,  and 
many  others  materials  have  come  into  common  use.  All 
of  these  are  produced  by  groups  of  people  of  whose 
working  conditions  we  are  in  ignorance  and  whose  very 
existence  is  unknown  to  most  of  us.  Among  civilized 
people  the  use  of  wool  has  grown  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  sheep-raising  industry  has  become  one  of  the 
biggest  businesses  in  all  sections  of  America.  The  sheep- 
herder  lives  a  lonely  life  and  yet  rarely  complains,  and  is 
never  happier  than  when  out  in  the  fields  with  his 
charges.  At  shearing  time  the  sheep  are  brought  into 
a  shed,  and  after  a  few  futile  struggles  in  an  effort  to 
escape  the  process,  they  sit  quietly  head  up  while  the 
fleece  is  taken  from  them.  When  they  go  into  the  shed 
they  are  grimy  gray ;  after  the  shearing  when  they  leave 
it  they  are  a  light  yellowish  white.  Thousands  of  people 
are  employed  in  the  wool  industry ;  in  securing  the 
product,  spinning  it,  weaving  it  into  cloth,  and  making 
it  into  garments  for  our  use. 

Silk  has  been  used  for  many  centuries  in  the  manu- 


36  MEN  AND  THINGS 

facture  of  garments.  A  Chinese  legend  tells  of  a  wife 
of  one  of  the  early  emperors  of  China  who  lived  more 
than  thirty-five  centuries  ago  and  who  learned  to  make 
silk  from  the  cocoon  of  the  caterpillar.  From  this 
discovery  has  come  a  great  industry.  The  caterpillar 
lives  upon  the  leaves  of  the  mulberry  tree,  and  it  has 
to  be  fed  and  tended  with  infinite  patience.  The  process 
of  gathering  the  cocoons  and  of  preparing  them  for  spin- 
ning is  a  business  that  can  be  learned  only  by  years  of 
apprenticeship.  Caring  for  the  caterpillar  is  a  task  that 
does  not  always  appeal  to  people,  and  yet  it  is  one  that 
engages  the  attention  of  a  large  number  of  workers. 

Cotton  was  first  used  in  India,  but  its  cultivation 
and  manufacture  developed  in  three  continents  at  just 
about  the  same  time.  In  a  Vedic  hymn  written  fifteen 
centuries  before  Christ  reference  is  made  to  "  the 
threads  in  the  loom,"  which  indicates  that  the  manu- 
facture of  cloth  was  already  well  advanced.  Cotton 
was  used  in  China  one  thousand  years  before  Christ. 
It  was  held  to  be  so  valuable  that  a  heavy  fine  was 
imposed  upon  any  one  who  stole  a  garment  or  any 
piece  of  cotton  cloth.  Alexander  the  Great  found  cotton 
in  use  when  he  invaded  India,  and  tradition  says  that 
it  was  he  who  introduced  its  use  into  Europe.  In  Persia 
cotton  was  exclusively  used  before  the  days  of  Alex- 
ander. Thousands  of  years  before  the  invention  of 
machinery  for  the  making  of  cotton  cloth  Hindu  girls 
were  spinning  cotton  on  wheels,  making  it  into  yarn, 
and  using  frail  looms  for  weaving  these  yarns  into  tex- 
tiles. The  beauty  of  the  fabric  was  so  striking  that  they 
were  known  as  "  Webs  of  the  Woven  Wind." 

Cotton  and  History.    Cotton  has  played  a  large  part 


THE  SPINNERS  AND  WEAVERS  ^^ 

in  the  history  of  the  United  States.  It  was  just  one 
hundred  years  after  the  discovery  of  America  that  the 
first  cotton  plant  was  introduced  into  the  land.  The 
short-staple  cotton  plant  did  not  mean  much  until  1814 
when  an  enterprising  New  Englander  assembled  in  one 
building  the  several  processes  of  spinning  and  weaving. 
His  shop  at  Waltham  was  the  first  complete  cotton 
factory  in  the  world.  The  South  made  the  mistake  of 
turning  its  attention  to  the  planting  of  cotton  and  allow- 
ing the  North  to  do  the  manufacturing.  Cotton  became  an 
important  factor  only  when  the  cotton-gin  was  invented. 
This  was  in  1833.  When  cotton  became  profitable,  Negro 
slavery  took  on  an  added  meaning.  The  value  of  cotton 
was  really  the  factor  that  led  men  to  demand  that  slavery 
should  continue  as  a  national   institution. 

Why  Increase  Production?  Having  secured  the  ma- 
terial suitable  to  be  made  into  cloth  the  next  step  was 
to  improve  the  process  of  manufacture.  The  first  wool 
that  was  woven  was  rolled  in  the  hand,  made  into 
threads,  and  woven  in  a  very  crude  loom.  The  task 
was  a  tedious  one,  and  the  cloth  was  produced  very 
slowly.  But,  as  time  went  on,  man  by  practise  learned 
more  about  weaving.  He  had  been  weaving  linen  from 
flax  in  the  days  when  the  Pyramids  were  being  built  in 
Egpyt,  but  it  was  not  until  the  power-loom  was  invented 
that  cloth-making  could  be  carried  on  as  a  profitable  in- 
dustry. Early  man  had  just  about  all  he  could  do  to 
provide  himself  with  food,  shelter,  and  the  clothes  that 
he  needed.  To-day  these  things  are  provided  in  quan- 
tities sufficient  for  all  and  with  little  exertion.  Hence, 
we  find  the  basis  for  the  division  of  labor.  A  machine 
for  spinning  cotton  can  produce  enough  thread  in  a  very 


38  MEN  AND  THINGS 

few  hours  to  make  clothes  for  the  families  of  all  the 
men  who  are  interested  in  operating  the  machine.  This 
thread  is  then  turned  over  to  the  operator  of  the  power- 
loom  ;  the  machinery  is  started  and  the  cloth  begins  to 
roll  itself  up  into  a  huge  bundle.  Very  soon  enough  is 
produced  to  clothe  all  of  those  who  are  interested  and 
occupied  with  this  operation.  The  cloth  is  then  turned 
over  to  the  garment-makers  and  the  process  of  fashion- 
ing the  clothes  is  carried  forward  so  that  each  individual 
has  his  or  her  part  to  perform ;  and  in  a  very  short  time 
there  are  enough  garments  fashioned  and  finished  so  that 
all  the  garment-makers  can  be  provided  with  clothes. 
Now  comes  the  question  that  is  so  often  asked.  If 
there  is  plenty  of  clothing  for  everybody,  why  should 
some  people  not  have  clothes  enough?  If  a  man  in- 
terested in  the  production  of  cloth  makes  more  than 
enough  for  him  to  wear,  why  should  he  go  on  working? 
The  answer  to  this  is  that,  in  the  modern  world,  man 
must  trade  off  his  specialized  product  in  order  to  satisfy 
his  own  needs  and  those  of  his  family. 

The  Machine.  The  enterprise  of  clothing  the  world 
is  made  possible  by  machinery.  Man  has  never  pro- 
duced more  marvelous  results  than  in  the  development 
of  the  intricate,  huge,  and  costly  machines  which  fash- 
ion the  fabrics  from  which  we  make  our  clothes.  These 
tools  give  man  a  thousand  hands  where  before  he  had 
only  two.  If  each  person  did  only  a  moderate  amount  of 
labor  the  people  of  every  country  that  employed  ma- 
chinery would  be  provided  with  all  the  necessities  of 
life.  A  supply  could  be  insured  without  overworking 
any  one,  and  a  few  hours'  work  each  day  would  be 
enough.     In  that  time  all  that  is  necessary  for  each  in- 


THE  SPINNERS  AND  WEAVERS  39 

dividual  would  be  produced.  The  machine,  then,  is  the 
instrument  that  increases  the  possibility  for  leisure ;  by 
the  multiplied  productive  power  it  increases  the  number 
of  things  that  a  man  may  have,  and  at  the  same  time 
it  enlarges  his  possibilities  for  leisure.  We  accept  the 
machine  as  we  accept  the  weather.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
it  is  not  at  all  certain  that  since  the  machine  has  been 
with  us  we  have  been  any  happier  because  of  the  enor- 
mous production  of  our  times.  The  machine  has  carried 
on  the  divisions  in  our  industrial  life.  The  new  methods 
and  improved  devices  save  labor,  time,  and  energy.  At 
the  same  time  they  increase  the  output.  A  man's  hand 
is  no  more  mighty  than  it  was  centuries  ago,  but  backed 
by  the  tireless  energy  of  machinery  he  can  with  slight 
effort  turn  out  a  production  that  a  story-teller  would 
not  have  credited  to  the  mightiest  giants  of  mythology. 
The  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  tells  the  story  in 
figures.  Five  hundred  yards  of  checked  gingham  can 
be  made  by  a  machine  in  73  hours;  by  hand  labor  it 
would  take  5,844  hours.  One  hundred  pounds  of  sew- 
ing cotton  can  be  made  by  a  machine  in  39  hours;  by 
hand  labor  it  would  take  2,895  bours.  The  labor  costs 
are  proportionate.  The  increased  efifectiveness  of  a 
man's  labor  aided  by  the  use  of  machinery,  according 
to  these  reports,  varies  from  150  per  cent,  all  the  way 
up  to  2,000  per  cent.  Hence,  we  see  that  the  machine 
is  not  so  much  a  labor-saving  device  as  it  is  a  pro- 
duction-making device.  As  has  been  said  already,  it  is 
man's  energy  and  strength  multiplied  many  times.  The 
machine  has  become  so  potent  that  the  question  is, 
"  What  relation  shall  the  created  thing  be  to  the 
creator?"     The  machine  sets  the  pace.     The  man  or 


40  MEN  AND  THINGS 

woman  working  with  it  must  follow.  It  is  exacting, 
implacable,  produces  through  long  hours ;  is  set  up  in 
the  midst  of  high  temperatures,  and  is  utterly  indifferent 
to  the  fate  of  the  individuals  operating  it.  It  works  at 
night,  it  works  by  day  and  under  conditions  which  are 
humanly  impossible ;  but  human  beings  are  forced  to 
keep  the  pace.  The  textile  cities  of  America  with  their 
rows  of  tenements  are  practically  built  by  the  machinery 
in  the  mills  and  factories.  The  system  has  grown  up,  and 
men  and  women  are  forced  to  adjust  themselves  to  this 
system.  The  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  individuals 
working  at  the  machines  are  very  likely  to  be  matters 
of  secondary  importance  to  the  value  of  the  production 
of  the  machinery  itself. 

The  Workers.  At  the  present  time  in  the  United 
States  there  are  about  1,000,000  people  employed  in  all 
the  textile  industries  and  about  $500,000,000  a  year 
paid  in  wages.  About  one  and  three  quarter  billions  is 
the  total  value  of  the  production.  The  worker  in  these 
mills  is  a  worker  and  little  or  nothing  else.  The  struggle 
for  mere  existence  takes  so  much  of  his  time  that  he 
has  slight  opportunity  and  but  small  inclination  to  take 
part  in  any  social  or  civic  affairs.  He  usually  lives  in  a 
tenement  or  in  a  barrack  type  of  building  provided  by 
the  company  for  which  he  works. 

The  Southern  Mill  Village.  In  the  Southern  mill 
towns  the  companies  usually  own  all  the  houses  in 
which  the  people  live.  These  houses  are  generally  one- 
story  buildings  with  a  porch  extending  along  the  entire 
front.  All  of  them  are  alike,  and  most  of  them  are 
painted  gray  or  drab.  The  streets  of  the  mill  village 
are  unpaved  and  in  most  places  cut  into  gullies  by  the 


THE  SPINNERS  AND  WEAVERS  41 

rains.     In  a  few  places  running  water,  bathtubs,  elec- 
tricity, and  other  modern  conveniences  have  been  pro- 
vided, but  these  are  the  rare  exceptions.     More  often 
the  houses  are  barren  of  all  comforts,  and  living  is  re- 
duced to  the  lowest  possible  terms.    The  mill  village  has 
ordinarily  but  one  store  and  this  is  owned  or  controlled 
by  the  company.    The  food  eaten  by  the  people  is  of  the 
simplest  kind ;  corn  bread,  pork  side-meat,  and  cofifee 
make  up  the  staples  of  diet.     Nearly  all  the  members  of 
the  family  work  in  the  mill.     At  an  investigation  made 
by  a  state  commission  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  one  of  the 
men  testified  that  he,  his  wife,  five  of  his  children,  and 
his  wife's  sister  all  worked  in  the  mill ;  there  were  three 
younger  children  who  stayed  at  home,  the  oldest  one  of 
the  three  acting  as  housekeeper  and  nurse.     The   im- 
provements that  most  people  expect  as  a  matter  of  course, 
such  as  fire-proofing,  sanitary  plumbing,  lighting,  heating, 
storage,  bathing,  and  washing  facilities  are  utterly  un- 
known.   If  you  spent  a  day  in  one  of  these  mill  villages, 
you  would  find  one  or  two  members  in  almost  every 
family  sitting  on  the  porch  of  the  house  and  away  from 
work  because  of   sickness.     If  a  neighbor  happens   to 
pass,  you     would  hear  some  such  conversation  as  this : 
"Howdy?     How   are  you    feeling?"     "Poorly,   thank 
you,  I  have  never  felt  worse  in  my  life;  my  victuals  just 
don't  seem  to  agree  with  me,  an'  I  just  feel  like  I  was 
of  no  account."  The  vitality  of  the  people  is  being  sapped 
by  the  insanitary  conditions  under  which  they  live.     It 
was  discovered  some  years  ago  that  hookworm  is  the 
cause  of  the  illness  that  has  been  preying  upon  these 
workers  for  generations.     The  dangerous  worms  thrive 
in  the  midst  of  filth.    A  clean-up  of  the  village  and  the 


42  MEN  AND  THINGS 

building  of  better  homes  almost  certainly  eliminates  the 
disease  and  its  cause. 

The  people  of  the  mill  village  find  most  of  their 
recreation  in  the  near-by  city.  Nearly  all  of  the  prin- 
cipal Southern  cities  have  a  number  of  these  villages  con- 
tributory to  it.  In  many  a  home  the  only  piece  of  finery 
is  the  tawdry  dress  made  up  in  what  is  supposed  to 
be  the  latest  style — certainly  the  most  exaggerated  style 
— and  usually  in  the  most  striking  colors.  This  is  the 
Sunday  dress  of  the  young  lady  of  the  house.  When 
she  is  ready  for  her  day  off  in  the  city,  her  costume  will 
be  completed  by  the  addition  of  a  hat  of  the  most  mar- 
velous and  striking  make  and  color. 

The  Motion-Picture's  Contribution.  The  motion- 
picture  theater  has  been  a  godsend  to  the  people  of  the 
mill  village.  Most  of  these  workers  are  very  ignorant. 
Hard  living  and  incessant  toil  have  deprived  them  of  the 
opportunity  of  attending  school,  and  even  if  there  were 
the  will  to  get  an  education,  the  schools  have  not  been 
accessible  in  many  instances ;  consequently,  the  people 
have  merely  the  rudiments  of  an  education,  and  many 
of  them  can  neither  read  nor  write.  Hundreds  of  homes 
in  these  villages  have  no  books  except  an  almanac  and 
a  Bible.  The  needs  of  the  workers  are  almost  over- 
whelming, so  that  one  hardly  knows  where  to  begin  even 
to  tell  about  the  changes  that  must  be  made  in  a  com- 
munity before  much  benefit  can  be  secured  in  the 
lives  of  the  individuals.  The  motion-picture  has  brought 
to  these  workers  scenes  from  the  outside  world  and  has 
enlarged  their  ideas  of  life.  Any  one  can  understand 
the  lesson  a  picture  teaches. 

The  motion-picture  furnishes  amusement  and  recrea- 


Copyriglit.    II.    (".    Wliite  Conipaiiy. 

In  the  colton  mills  a  worker  is  a  worker  and  little  or  nothins^  else. 


THE  SPINNERS  AND  WEAVERS  43 

tion,  and  it  gives  a  glimpse  of  larger  aims  and  new  mo- 
tives. The  girls  who  dress  up  in  their  fine  clothes  and 
gaudy  hats  and  go  to  the  city  whenever  they  have  a 
chance  are  trying  to  express  themselves.  Inherently  they 
have  fine  traits  of  character,  but  out  of  their  ignorance 
and  lack  of  experience  they  are  unable  properly  to 
balance  the  proportion  of  color  and  style  and  make 
these  to  fit  in  with  the  facts  of  every-day  life.  There 
is  no  one  to  teach  them ;  they  are  unable  to  go  to  dress- 
makers for  advice,  and  the  people  with  whom  they  asso- 
ciate admire  the  kind  of  finery  that  they  wear.  But 
when  they  see  these  pictures  presented  on  the  screen 
they  get  a  chance  to  know  how  people  in  other  places 
really  live  and  act.  As  one  girl  said :  "  I  only  learned 
how  to  be  a  lady  when  I  got  to  see  ladies'  pictures  at 
the  movies." 

Improvements.  Some  of  the  mills  have  built  model 
villages,  have  furnished  good  schools,  churches,  play- 
grounds, and  other  recreational  features.  There  have 
been  discouraging  failures  made  in  attempting  to  lead 
the  people  to  accept  the  better  things;  but  the  failures 
are  insignificant  when  compared  to  the  successes  that 
have  been  achieved  by  the  companies  that  have  really 
had  the  welfare  of  the  workers  at  heart.  One  mill 
owner  has  put  in  the  finest  kind  of  equipment  in  the 
homes  of  the  people.  The  hours  of  labor  have  been 
materially  reduced :  first  they  began  with  eight,  now  they 
have  seven,  and  this  reformer  says  that  he  believes  that 
they  will  be  able  to  reduce  the  hours  still  further  and 
make  the  six-hour  day  the  standard.  He  intends  to  put 
on  four  shifts  of  workers  for  each  twenty-four  hours  and 
believes  that  he  will  get  a  better  result  than  could  be 


44  MEN  AND  THINGS 

achieved  even  with  the  eight-hour  day.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  this  man,  by  paying  higher  wages  than  others 
and  by  reducing  the  hours  of  labor,  has  been  able  to  se- 
cure permanence  among  his  workers ;  and  at  this  period 
when  other  mills  are  shorthanded,  he  has  all  the  labor 
that  he  needs.  "  It  is  not  philanthropy  but  good  sense  " 
is  his  way  of  defining  the  splendid  work  he  is  doing. 

Workers  in  the  Northern  Textile  Cities.  In  the 
Northern  textile  cities  we  find  a  different  situation,  for 
most  of  the  workers  live  in  tenements.  The  stores, 
shops,  and  theaters  are  built  and  operated  with  the  de- 
mands of  the  workers,  rather  than  their  needs  in  view. 
In  one  of  these  textile  cities  the  average  wage  is  $11.25 
a  week.  Consider  the  case  of  just  one  family  living  in 
this  city  under  these  conditions.  The  family  lives  in  a 
tenement  with  barely  room  enough  for  the  father,  mother, 
two  daughters,  and  a  son.  The  mother  is  devoted  to  the 
home ;  the  father  is  a  loom-fixer  in  the  mill  and  a  member 
of  the  union.  All  attend  the  Congregational  church  on 
Sundays.  This  man  has  been  able  to  send  his  children 
through  grammar  school.  His  wages  are  above  the 
average  for  the  kind  of  work  he  is  doing.  The  two 
girls  started  work  just  as  soon  as  they  finished  school. 
The  son  also  went  to  work,  but  he  was  so  tired  of  the 
town  where  he  had  always  lived  that  he  went  to  New 
York  and  secured  a  position  there.  Everything  went 
well  for  many  years,  and  the  prospects,  w^hile  not  bright 
for  the  future,  were  not  especially  dark.  Then  trouble 
came.  First,  the  father  was  sick,  and  his  illness  dragged 
on  through  the  whole  winter,  but  by  spring  he  was  able 
to  go  back  to  work.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the  slack 
season,  however,  when  he  applied  for  his  old  position. 


THE  SPINNERS  AND  WEAVERS  45 

He  went  to  work,  but  the  wages  were  not  as  good  as  they 
had  been  when  he  left.  The  daughters  found  that  in 
order  to  have  any  society  they  had  to  spend  more  money 
for  clothes.  "  You  can't  expect  us  to  dress  in  a  dowdy 
fashion,  for  if  we  do  we  never  will  have  any  friends,"  was 
their  assertion.  Ten  dollars  was  the  wage  of  one  of  the 
girls  and  eight  dollars  the  wage  of  the  other  girl.  This 
amount  did  not  go  very  far  toward  supporting  them  and 
buying  the  necessary  clothes,  and  gave  but  little  chance 
for  a  good  time.  Nothing  was  left  to  help  the  family 
fund.  Before  the  winter  was  over  a  strike  was  called 
and  the  father  lost  his  position.  The  family  now  became 
dependent  upon  the  funds  of  the  union  to  which  the 
father  belonged  and  the  small  amount  the  girls  could 
squeeze  out  of   their  wages. 

The  winter  passed  as  do  all  other  mundane  things  and 
the  strike  came  to  an  end.  Those  who  were  members 
of  the  union  were  not  allowed  to  come  back.  The  man- 
agers of  the  mill  proclaimed  that  they  had  won  a  great 
victory  for  democracy  and  that  the  mill  should  be 
operated  strictly  as  an  "  open  shop."  The  father  found 
that  "  open  shop  "  meant  a  closed  shop  to  him  until  he 
tore  up  his  union  card  and  promised  not  to  join  any 
other  labor  organization.  This  he  did  in  order  to  go  back 
to  work.  He  was  forced  to  it,  but  he  never  quite  gained 
the  confidence  of  the  foreman,  for  he  was  a  marked  man. 
Added  to  the  hard  struggle  for  existence  with  its  attend- 
ant worries  there  is  an  increasing  feeling  of  bitterness 
in  the  heart  of  this  man,  because  he  knows  that  he  is 
being  discriminated  against  for  his  former  membership 
in  the  trade  union.  The  family  lives  on,  as  thousands 
of  others  in  the  neighborhood  are  doing,  but  there  is 


46  MEN  AND  THINGS 

hostility  toward  the  factory  and  all  it  represents.  Not 
all  the  workers  in  the  mill  have  this  experience.  Some 
have  managed  to  save,  and  by  good  fortune  have  been 
able  to  save  enough  so  that  they  are  fairly  comfortable 
and  independent,  owning  their  homes  and  living  in  com- 
parative ease,  although  very  simply.  We  must  not  think 
for  a  moment  that  there  is  only  one  side  to  this  life  and 
that  always  a  disheartening  one.  The  challenging  thing, 
however,  is  that  the  men  and  women  who  are  actually 
operating  the  machines  are  nearly  all  living  harassed 
lives,  with  a  heavy  burden  of  trouble  and  worry,  and 
are  not  finding  the  pleasure  that  should  come  from  work 
well  done. 

The  Machine  and  Human  Happiness.  The  machine 
has  been  hailed  as  a  savior  from  trouble  and  want.  It 
promised  happiness  and  well-being  to  all  mankind.  This 
promise  has  not  been  fulfilled,  for  instead  of  the  prophecy 
of  the  future  being  one  of  cheer  growing  out  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  machine,  it  is  rather  one  of  warning. 
The  machine  has  subordinated  the  man ;  thrust  him 
aside  and  denied  him  a  fair  share  of  the  things  he  has 
helped  to  create.  As  one  of  our  keen-minded  writers 
has  said,  "  The  machine  has  developed  a  new  kind  of 
slave  and  doomed  him  to  produce  through  long  and 
vi'eary  hours  a  senseless  glut  of  things ;  and  then  forced 
him  to  suffer  for  lack  of  the  very  things  he  has  pro- 
duced." 

The  Church  and  the  Factory.  What  about  the 
church  in  the  midst  of  the  factory  city?  The  minister 
is  no  longer  the  most  important  personage  in  town.  The 
business  man  dominates  the  life  of  the  community.  The 
mill  has  pushed  itself  into  the  place  of  influence  once  held 


THE  SPINNERS  AND  WEAVERS  47 

by  the  church.  In  one  of  the  New  England  cities  a 
factory  has  been  built  around  three  sides  of  one  of  the 
oldest  established  churches.  The  church  still  remains, 
embraced  by  this  factory.  It  is  a  fit  parable  of  the 
present  situation  in  the  mill  town.  The  church  has  a 
place  but  industry  holds  the  outstanding  position. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  pieces  of  work  undertaken 
in  recent  years  was  that  of  a  pastor  in  one  of  the  mill 
villages  in  Georgia.  He  built  the  church;  put  in  club 
rooms  and  provided  features  that  would  appeal  to  the 
people.  At  first  the  cotton-mill  owners  were  favorably 
disposed  toward  the  undertaking.  They  supplied  a  por- 
tion of  the  money  toward  erecting  the  building,  and  made 
a  regular  contribution  for  the  support  of  the  enterprise. 
The  rector  of  the  church  soon  found  that  the  young 
people  did  not  attend  the  social  functions  as  much  as  he 
had  hoped  that  they  would,  and  they  were  conspicuous 
by  their  absence  from  the  Sunday  services.  Upon  in- 
quiry, in  addition  to  the  usual  reasons  given  by  people 
for  not  attending  church,  he  found  that  it  was  principally 
the  economic  factor  that  was  at  work  against  the  church. 
Low  wages  and  long  hours  left  the  people  without 
energy  enough  to  take  part  in  anything  that  had  to  do 
with  their  culture  or  spiritual  welfare.  The  sad  thing 
about  it  was  that  the  minister  soon  found  to  his  deep 
sorrow  that  even  his  questioning  of  the  people  was  re- 
sented by  the  authorities,  who  began  to  refer  to  him  as  a 
trouble-maker  and  a  busybody,  and  eventually  he  was 
forced  to  resign  his  church  and  leave  the  community. 

How  is  the  church  going  to  meet  this  situation?  The 
church  must  continue  its  helpful  agencies,  open  its  club 
rooms,  offer  opportunity  for  play,  for  service,  and  for 


48  MEN  AND  THINGS 

worship.  But  it  must  do  more  than  that,  for  it  must 
be  the  champion  of  the  people,  help  them  to  secure  a 
fair  degree  of  leisure,  and  then  direct  them  in  a  wise 
spending  of  their  leisure  hours.  Unless  the  church  can 
do  this,  it  can  never  be  the  instrument  for  leading  men 
and  women  in  these  communities  to  accept  Jesus  as  a 
personal  Savior  from  sin. 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  World  of  the  Garment  Makers 

Fifth  Avenue  in  New  York  is  one  of  the  world's  great 
thoroughfares.  Years  ago  it  was  devoted  exclusively  to 
residential  purposes.  The  wealthy  people  built  their 
homes  along  the  lower  end  of  the  street.  As  the  city 
grew,  these  people  followed  the  avenue  north  until  at 
the  present  time  the  finest  homes  in  the  city  are  located 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Central  Park  in  the  upper  reaches 
of  the  street.  Between  Fourteenth  Street  and  Washing- 
ton Square  there  are  now  a  number  of  business  houses, 
two  fine  old  churches,  and  a  portion  of  the  city  that  still 
retains  the  residential  quality  of  dignity  and  worth. 
From  Fourteenth  Street  to  Fiftieth  Street  the  avenue  is 
given  over  almost  exclusively  to  business.  From  Thir- 
tieth Street  to  Fifty-seventh  Street  are  found  the  finest 
shops  and  stores  in  New  York  City.  Below  Thirtieth 
Street  this  stately  avenue,  and  the  numbered  cross  streets 
for  many  blocks  running  east  and  west  have  been  in- 
vaded by  great  skyscrapers  known  as  loft  buildings  in 
which  is  being  carried  on  the  greatest  garment-making 
industry  in  the  world. 

The  workers  in  the  garment  trade  in  New  York  are 
nearly  all  Jews  and  Italians.  At  any  time  of  the  sum- 
mer and  winter  thousands  of  these  workers  will  be  found 
spending  their  leisure  on  the  street  between  twelve  and 

49 


50  MEN  AND  THINGS 

one  o'clock.  When  the  workers  are  free  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  pass  along  the  sidewalks  of  Fifth  Avenue 
from  I'^ourteenth  to  Twenty-third  Street.  This  solid 
mass  of  men  and  women,  all  speaking  a  tongue  that  is 
unintelligible  to  American  ears,  pass  round  and  round, 
back  and  forth,  up  and  down,  a  resistless  tide  typifying 
the  steady  resistless  rise  of  labor  to  a  position  in  society 
where  it  must  be  considered. 

These  big  loft  buildings  occupied  by  the  garment- 
making  industry  have  been  constructed  in  recent  years, 
and  so  rapidly  have  they  been  erected  that  the  store- 
keepers and  business  men  of  upper  Fifth  Avenue  have 
formed  an  organization  and  are  exerting  every  effort 
"  to  save  the  avenue  from  this  advancing  tide  of  foreign 
workers." 

Many  shops  and  department  stores  have  been  forced 
to  give  way  before  the  onward  sweep  of  this  enterprise. 
The  area  in  New  York  occupied  most  exclusively  by 
the  garment  workers  is  about  a  mile  long  and  about  one- 
half  mile  wide;  in  this  district  there  are  thousands  of 
workers  employed  exclusively  in  making  garments  of 
one  kind  and  another.  The  Garment  Makers'  Union  has 
a  membership  of  60,000.  How  much  do  we  know  about 
these  workers?  When  the  Triangle  Shirt  Waist  Com- 
pany's loft  caught  fire  anc'  scores  of  girls  were  burned 
to  death  or  killed  by  jumping  from  the  building,  the 
country  was  shocked,  but  up  to  that  time  we  had  not 
known  that  thousands  of  girls  work  every  day  behind 
closed  and  locked  doors.  We  have  almost  forgotten  the 
incident.  Where  was  the  factory?  What  w^as  done 
about  it?  The  girls  were,  however,  our  servants  work- 
ing at  the  task  of  furnishing  us  with  clothes ! 


THE  GARMENT  WORKERS  51 

Fashion  and  Clothes.  In  the  last  chapter  we  con- 
sidered the  workers  who  produce  the  material  from 
which  clothes  are  made.  The  question  that  is  still  of 
vital  significance  to  most  of  us  is,  how  shall  we  make 
our  clothes ?  "I  have  not  a  thing  to  wear,"  is  a  very 
common  statement,  yet  it  does  not  mean  what  it  says, 
for  the  people  that  use  this  complaint  most  frequently 
are  the  ones  who  have  literally  trunks  full  of  clothes. 
What  they  mean  is  that  they  have  nothing  in  the  latest 
fashion.  Fashion  is  a  hard  taskmaster.  Some  one  has 
said  that  the  length  of  the  stay  of  a  society  woman  at 
any  hotel  can  be  determined  by  the  number  of  gowns 
she  brings  with  her  to  the  hotel.  "  She  would  no  more 
think  of  wearing  the  same  gown  twice  to  the  same  place 
than  she  would  think  of  insulting  her  best  friends,"  was 
a  woman's  description  of  her  companion  to  prove  that 
she  was  a  "  real  lady."  The  frequent  changes  in  style 
bring  rich  returns  to  the  manufacturers  of  clothing  and 
call  for  a  ceaseless  outgo  by  people  who  feel  that  they 
are  obliged  to  follow  the  dictates  of  fashion.  "  I  hate 
rich  people,"  said  a  little  shop-girl.  "  For  every  time  I 
see  a  woman  wearing  a  fine  dress  I  cannot  help  thinking 
how  hard  I  work  and  how  useless  the  dress  is  for  any 
practical  purpose." 

Dressmaking  in  the  Home.  Dressmaking  was  at  one 
time  carried  on  entirely  within  the  family.  It  was  a 
domestic  employment.  The  only  garments  that  were 
made  outside  of  the  home  were  men's  clothes,  and  the 
journeyman  tailor  was  a  skilled  mechanic.  He  made 
the  entire  garment  himself;  but  even  in  this  industry 
very  often  the  work  was  carried  on  in  his  home  and  all 
the  members  of  the  family  assisted  more  or  less. 


52  MEN  AND  THINGS 

The  Sweat-Shop.  The  sweat-shop,  in  most  cases,  is 
a  home  that  lias  been  turned  into  a  factory.  The  father 
or  mother  goes  to  the  manufacturer  of  clothing  and 
agrees  to  furnish  so  many  pairs  of  pants  or  waists  or 
shirts  for  so  much  money.  The  worker  carries  these 
garments  to  the  home  and  all  the  family  go  to  work  upon 
the  job.  IMany  of  these  homes  are  one-room  affairs,  so 
that  in  many  instances  the  work  is  carried  on  in  the 
room  where  the  cooking  is  done ;  where  the  meals  are 
eaten  and  where  the  family  sleeps.  Legislation  has 
done  much  to  eliminate  the  sweat-shops,  and  sweating 
as  a  system  is  under  the  ban.  Every  church  and  every 
individual  in  the  church  ought  to  know  all  about  the 
work  of  the  National  Consumers'  League.  This  organi- 
zation inspects  factories  and  workshops  and  issues  a 
stamp  or  label  that  is  attached  to  all  garments  made 
under  clean,  humane,  healthful,  and  fair  conditions.  In- 
formation can  be  secured  by  writing  to  Mrs.  Florence 
Kelly,  289  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York.  Look  for  this 
label  when  you  buy  any  garment. 

Low  wages  make  possible  the  continuation  of  the 
sweat-shop  system.  In  a  family  where  the  wage-earner 
receives  less  than  enough  for  its  subsistence,  or  for  some 
reason  or  other  the  earnings  are  decreased  to  a  rate  at 
which  the  family  cannot  live,  it  becomes  necessary  to 
supplement  the  family  income.  Wife  and  children  go 
to  work,  boarders  and  lodgers  are  taken  into  the  home, 
and  the  standardization  of  living  is  so  low^ered  that  nor- 
mal conditions  of  home  life  are  impossible.  In  a  study 
made  of  the  garment  trades  it  was  found  that  in  the 
homes  where  work  is  being  done  for  a  profit  only  about 
1 1  per  cent,  of  the  husbands  in  these  families  earned 


THE  GARMENT  WORKERS  53 

$500  or  more  a  year,  while  more  than  one  half  of  them 
earned  $300  or  less  a  year. 

The  Task  System.  A  study  of  conditions  in  the 
dressmaking  industry  was  made  by  the  United  States 
government.  The  results  of  this  study  showed  that  we 
never  can  get  back  to  the  old  state  of  affairs.  We  have 
entered  into  a  new  period  of  production  and  this  must 
continue.  The  task  system  prevails  in  a  large  number 
of  the  garment-making  shops.  By  the  task  system  is 
meant  that  the  work  on  a  garment  is  done  by  a  team  of 
three  persons  consisting  of  a  machine-operator,  a  baster, 
and  a  finisher.  Every  three  teams  have  two  pressers  and 
several  girls  to  sew  on  the  pockets  and  buttons  that  are 
necessary  for  the  completion  of  the  garment.  There  is 
essentially  a  fine  adjustment  within  the  team,  so  that 
each  one  completes  his  work  in  time  to  pass  it  on  to  the 
next  one  as  soon  as  the  latter  is  ready  to  receive  it.  A 
certain  amount  of  work  is  called  a  task,  and  this  amount 
is  supposed  to  be  done  within  a  day.  Forced  competi- 
tion has  gradually  increased  the  amount  of  the  task,  until 
frequently  even  with  the  most  strenuous  activity  the  task 
cannot  be  completed  without  working  twelve  and  four- 
teen hours  a  day.  The  wages  paid  are  based  upon  the 
utmost  that  the  best  individual  in  the  team  can  do  in  a 
day. 

This  system  came  in  with  the  influx  of  the  Jews  into 
New  York  in  the  early  eighties.  These  workers,  with 
their  intense  desire  to  accumulate  money,  get  on  in  the 
world,  and  then  be  emancipated  from  hard  work,  are 
peculiarly  adapted  to  the  system.  Just  as  soon  as  a  few 
of  the  workers  save  enough  money  they  become  pro-- 
prietors  of  small  factories.     Another  thing  ;hat  enters 


54  MEN  AND  THINGS 

into  the  situation  is  the  characteristics  of  the  people 
themselves.  Jews  are  a  restless  race  and  resent  the  rigid 
routine  and  supervision  of  the  factory,  but  the  compara- 
tive freedom  in  a  small  shop  under  the  task  system  ap- 
peals to  their  desires  to  get  on  in  the  world  and  gives 
them  a  degree  of  freedom  which  they  cannot  have  under 
the  factory  system.  The  task  system  lends  full  oppor- 
tunity for  the  cupidity  of  worker  and  owner  to  exploit 
other  workers,  and  in  the  end  every  man  in  the  shop 
comes  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  opportunity  for  more 
profits. 

The  Modern  Factory.  Another  stage  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  clothing  industry  is  found  in  the  factory  itself. 
Just  as  the  task  system  was  an  improvement  over  the 
sweat-shop  in  the  home,  so  the  factory  is  a  big  advance 
over  the  task  system.  The  factory  has  grown  very 
rapidly  owing  to  the  demand  for  tailor-made  clothes,  to 
the  continual  change  in  the  styles,  and  to  the  large  sup- 
ply of  cheap  labor  always  at  hand.  In  recent  years  the 
demand  for  men's  and  women's  ready-made  clothes  has 
so  increased  that  now  large  department  stores  which 
formerly  sold  only  cheap  grades  of  ready-made  clothes 
are  stocking  up  with  expensive  garments  in  order  to 
cater  to  the  class  of  customers  who  used  to  order  their 
clothes  directly  from  the  custom  tailor. 

This  movement  toward  standardizing  the  clothing  in- 
dustry aids  the  factory  in  overcoming  the  competition 
of  the  smaller  shops.  There  is  going  on  a  sure  but  slow 
movement  toward  the  elimination  of  the  bad  conditions 
in  the  garment  trades,  and  the  factories  are  increasing 
because  people  of  even  moderate  means  are  demanding 
higher-priced  and  better-grade  garments.     "  I  got  such 


THE  GARMENT  WORKERS         '  55 

a  wonderful  bargain  to-day,  you  just  ought  to  see  the 
shirt-waists  that  are  being  sold  for  one  dollar  and 
seventy-five  cents.  Why,  you  couldn't  even  buy  the  ma- 
terial for  that  price,  to  say  nothing  of  the  work  and 
trouble  of  making  it."  This  is  an  accurate  report  of  a 
conversation  overheard  on  a  street-car  one  evening.  It 
sounds  familiar  to  you,  now,  doesn't  it?  When  you  got 
your  bargain,  did  you  ever  consider  the  girls  who  work 
to  make  you  that  waist?  The  manufacturer  is  not  alone 
responsible  for  bad  conditions.  It  is  impossible  for  him 
to  pay  good  wages  and  continue  in  business  unless  he 
can  sell  his  goods  at  a  decent  profit.  If  you  force  him  to 
compete  with  the  sweat-shop,  you  drive  him  out  of  busi- 
ness and  subsidize  the  sweat-shop  at  the  same  time. 

Our  selfishness  in  desiring  to  get  the  best  possible  bar- 
gains makes  us  thoughtless  partners  of  the  exploiters  of 
the  men  and  women  who  are  working  to  make  our 
clothes.  Progress  costs  money,  time,  and  thought.  We 
are  all  bound  together  and  go  forward  or  backward  with 
the  group.  Next  time  you  buy  a  dress  or  a  suit,  try 
to  picture  the  girls  and  men  who  worked  on  it.  Con- 
sider the  hours  of  labor  which  they  spent  and  the  re- 
sponsibilities that  rest  upon  them ;  then  figure  against 
the  price  which  you  are  paying  a  fair  proportion  of  the 
cost  for  wages  to  these  workers,  and  ask  yourself  would 
you  be  willing  to  make  the  garment  for  that  price? 
If  you  would  not,  providing,  of  course,  that  you  had  the 
skill,  you  are  not  playing  fair  with  your  sister  and 
brother  who  live  somewhere  and  are  being  cheated  out 
of  a  decent  wage. 

Groups  by  Races.  The  workers  in  the  garment  in- 
dustries in  New  York  live  in  groups  made  up  not  by 


56  MEN  AND  THINGS 

industrial  conditions  or  interests  so  much  as  by  racial 
interests.  The  Jews  tend  to  live  in  certain  quarters  of 
the  city  confined  to  themselves,  and  the  Italians  have 
their  quarters  also.  As  a  family  accumulates  a  little 
money,  plans  are  made  to  move  out  of  these  sections  in 
lower  New  York  and  to  settle  in  different  surroundings 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  city,  on  Lexington  Avenue  or 
in  the  Bronx. 

Seasonal  Work  in  the  Garment  Trade.  In  spite 
of  the  tremendous  advance  made  in  late  years  in  these 
industries  in  matters  relating  to  conditions  of  work,  such 
as  the  eliminating  of  excessive  overtime,  shortening  of 
the  regular  hours  of  labor,  and  raising  rates  or  earnings, 
the  matter  of  unemployment  is  still  a  serious  problem. 
The  garment  trades  are  affected  by  seasonal  demands. 
Everybody  wants  a  new  suit  at  just  about  the  same  time. 
"  If  I  cannot  have  my  spring  suit  by  Easter,  I  would 
just  as  soon  not  have  it  at  all,"  was  the  complaint  of  a 
young  girl  whose  family  was  trying  to  make  retrench- 
ments during  war  time.  The  improvement  in  conditions 
has  been  marked ;  but  in  no  way  has  it  been  found  prac- 
ticable to  lengthen  the  work  season.  And  since  payment 
by  the  piece  is  widely  prevalent  in  the  clothing  industries, 
in  the  case  of  home  workers  a  record  of  the  time  and  the 
payment  is  not  strictly  kept,  and  statistics  are  not  avail- 
able. 

Health  Conditions.  The  health  conditions  among  the 
workers  in  the  garment  industries  show  an  interesting 
relationship  to  the  wages  paid  and  the  method  of  pay- 
ment. The  United  States  Public  Health  Service,  re- 
porting on  conditions  among  the  garment-workers  in 
New  York  City,  states  that  the  strain  was  more  preva- 


THE  GARMENT  WORKERS  57 

lent  where  wages  were  paid  on  the  piece  basis  than  by 
the  week  or  other  time  basis.  With  the  increased  use 
of  machinery  another  series  of  health  hazards  appears, 
according  to  this  report.  These  are  the  result  of  fatigue 
and  overstrain  caused  by  the  close  application  to  the 
same  process  through  long  hours.  The  monotony  of 
the  work  contributes  to  the  bad  industrial  conditions. 
At  its  best  the  wage  of  the  garment-worker  is  pitiably 
small.  Among  the  girls,  especially,  there  is  keen  com- 
petition. They  cut  one  another  down,  and  they  under- 
bid and  undersell  each  other.  The  average  wage  paid 
barely  affords  a  living.  One  little  Italian  girl  in  a  recent 
shirt-waist  strike  in  New  York  said,  "  Me  no  live  verra 
much  on  forta-nine  cent  a  day."  This  wage  of  forty-nine 
cents  it  must  be  said  is  not  usual,  and  is  largely  the 
result  of  the  ignorance  of  the  girl,  but  there  are  others 
like  her  who  are  forced  to  go  to  work  unprepared  and 
therefore  are  unable  to  earn  a  better  wage. 

In  many  communities  there  still  lingers  the  employ- 
ment of  the  women  and  children  in  home  trades,  making 
garments  under  sweat-shop  conditions.  The  contractor 
who  formerly  depended  for  his  living  upon  letting  out 
his  work  to  the  sweat-shops  has  largely  disappeared ; 
but  there  are  still  many  homes  in  which  work  is  done  and 
no  serious  attempt  has  been  made  as  yet  to  reach  the 
evils  incident  to  it.  Here  the  workers  are  driven  by  the 
pressure  of  poverty  to  labor  under  conditions  and  for 
wages  that  destroy  life,  and  to  work  their  children  in 
the  same  manner.  Here  disease  breeds  and  is  passed  on 
to  the  consumer. 

A  recent  study  of  the  home  conditions  shows  that  the 
worst  abuses  of  child  labor  linger  in  this  remnant  of 


58  MEN  AND  THINGS 

family  work.  No  child  labor  law  that  has  been  passed 
in  the  United  States  seems  to  be  adequate  to  the  situa- 
tion. To  control  this  there  must  be  a  special  provision 
made  in  the  factory  laws  of  each  state  regarding  the 
work  done  by  families  in  their  own  homes.  Several  of 
the  states  do  provide  in  their  laws  that  no  work  for  pay 
shall  be  done  in  the  homes  except  by  the  members  of 
the  families  themselves.  Other  states  provide  that  this 
work  shall  be  done  under  certain  conditions,  and  stand- 
ards are  required  of  the  factory.  Massachusetts  issues 
a  license  to  the  family  to  do  work  in  the  home,  and  like 
New  York,  requires  a  "  tenement  made  "  tag  attached  to 
the  article ;  also  holding  the  owners  of  the  property  re- 
sponsible for  any  violation  of  the  law.  At  the  Chicago  In- 
dustrial Exhibition  a  picture  was  shown  entitled  "  Sacred 
Motherhood."  It  was  that  of  a  woman  nursing  her 
child  and  driving  a  sewing-machine  at  the  same  time. 
It  was  a  terrible  portrayal  of  unchecked,  unregulated  in- 
dustry, which  does  not  stop  to  reckon  the  effect  upon 
the  future,  but  imperils  the  well-being  of  both  the  mother 
and  the  child. 

Labor  Disturbances.  The  fundamental  cause  of  the 
troubles  in  the  clothing  industry  in  Boston  prior  to  the 
spring  of  1913,  was  similar  to  that  in  the  same  industry 
in  New  York  before  their  abolition  by  concerted  action 
of  the  employers  and  employees  in  the  spring  of  the 
same  year.  There  have  been  serious  disturbances  in  the 
garment  trade  in  Chicago,  New  York,  Boston,  Philadel- 
phia, and  other  cities.  The  difficulty  was  right  in  the 
trade  itself  and  many  of  the  causes  of  discord  will  con- 
tinue for  some  time  to  come. 

Among  these  causes  of  disturbances  are  long  hours, 


THE  GARMENT  WORKERS  59 

low  wages,  poor  sanitary  conditions,  sub-contracting, 
unequal  distribution  of  the  work,  work  in  tenement- 
houses,  failure  to  state  the  standard  price  for  piece-work, 
playing  of  favorites  in  the  giving  out  of  the  work,  lack  of 
cooperation  between  the  employers  and  the  employees, 
prevalence  of  the  piece-work  system,  and  the  difficulty  of 
determining  what  shall  be  paid  or  what  constitutes  a 
just  basis  for  computing  hours  and  wages. 

For  instance,  three  girls  work  in  one  factory  and  are 
put  upon  work  that  is  to  be  a  test  upon  which  a  new 
wage  is  to  be  based.  One  of  the  girls  is  put  to  work 
upon  a  certain  task  in  shirt-waists.  They  are  made  of 
thin  material ;  the  thread  used  is  very  fine  and  the  stuff 
shirrs  easily,  so  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  make  any 
speed.  The  second  girl  is  put  to  work  upon  a  pile  of 
plain  waists.  The  third  girl  has  a  still  different  task. 
Each  girl  at  the  beginning  of  the  day  has  an  equal  amount 
of  work  to  do.  They  all  put  in  the  same  number  of 
hours  and  expend  approximately  the  same  amount  of 
energy;  but  at  the  end  of  the  day  one  of  the  girls  has 
finished  her  task,  the  other  has  probably  two  hours'  work 
to  do  on  the  day  following,  while  the  third  girl,  the  one 
who  was  working  upon  the  thin  waists,  has  more  than  a 
day's  work  ahead  of  her.  It  will  be  readily  seen  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  determine  what  pay  would  be  a 
fair  price  for  making  shirt-waists,  or  for  doing  any 
part  of  the  work  connected  with  the  making  of  these 
garments  unless  a  different  and  more  equitable  basis  of 
reckoning  is  established. 

Cost  and  Selling  Price.  Another  matter  that  enters 
into  the  situation  and  complicates  it  is  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  different  selling  price  put  on  each  garment. 


6o  MEN  AND  THINGS 

Of  course,  we  must  all  recognize  that  wages  cannot  be 
made  except  in  proportion  to  the  selling  price  of  the 
garment.  No  business  can  be  run  unless  it  is  able  to 
make  enough  on  its  products  to  pay  a  decent  wage.  The 
cost  of  production,  including  the  cost  of  materials,  a 
fair  price  for  the  superintendent,  and  a  proportion  of  the 
general  overhead  cost  of  the  factory  must  be  charged 
against  each  garment,  together  with  a  proportion  of  the 
interest  on  the  investment  and  the  approximate  cost  of 
the  wear  and  tear  on  the  machinery.  Add  to  this  the 
cost  for  advertising  and  marketing  the  garment.  All  of 
these  things  have  to  enter  into  consideration,  and  the 
wages  must  be  determined  by  the  amount  of  money  that 
will  be  received  for  the  finished  garment.  Now,  how 
are  we  to  bring  about  a  just  settlement  of  this  vexed 
question  ?  There  is  only  one  way  in  which  it  can  be  done, 
that  is,  by  bringing  the  workers  themselves  into  partner- 
ship with  the  firm.  Just  as  long  as  the  destiny  of  the 
worker  is  in  the  hands  of  the  foreman  and  there  is  no 
chance  for  these  workers  to  be  heard,  or  to  have  any 
voice  in  the  decisions  that  are  made,  so  long  there  will 
be  fruitful  cause  for  trouble. 

Arbitration.  The  experience  of  the  Massachusetts 
Board  of  Arbitration  warrants  the  conclusion  that  there 
is  a  proper  and  very  useful  sphere  of  activity  for  a 
permanent  State  Board  of  Arbitration.  A  number  of 
questions  arise  from  time  to  time  in  almost  all  trades 
which  do  not  require  a  detailed  knowledge  of  the  in- 
dustry on  the  part  of  the  arbitrating  body.  There  are, 
for  example,  questions  of  discharge  in  alleged  violation 
of  a  clause  in  an  agreement  covering  discharges.  There 
are  certain  other  controversies  which  both  sides  are  will- 


THE  GARMENT  WORKERS  6i 

ing  to  have  decided  by  the  application  of  standards  which 
are  matters  of  fact  ascertainable  upon  investigation. 
For  instance,  in  many  piece-price  controversies,  both 
sides  are  willing  to  have  the  c[uestions  decided  on  the 
basis  of  what  competing  manufacturers  pay  for  the  same 
operations  under  similar  working  conditions ;  but  each  is 
unwilling  to  accept  the  figures  presented  by  the  other 
side  in  support  of  its  contention.  This  has  been  done 
by  the  Massachusetts  Board  in  the  boot  and  shoe  in- 
dustry, and  recently  in  a  textile  case.  The  Arbitration 
Board  should  be  given  all  the  powers  in  the  way  of  com- 
pelling the  attendance  of  witnesses  and  testimony  under 
oath,  and  the  production  of  books  and  papers,  which  it 
requires  to  secure  the  information  necessary  to  reach  a 
decision. 

The  Religious  and  Social  Problems.  Twenty-five  per 
cent,  of  all  the  effort  put  into  the  processes  of  industry 
and  commerce  is  concerned  with  the  supply  of  clothing. 
Most  of  the  clothing  is  made  under  conditions  which  de- 
termine the  life  and  welfare  of  such  a  large  proportion 
of  the  people  that  we  find  in  the  garment-making  in- 
dustries themselves  a  distinct  and  definite  challenge  to 
the  religious  and  social  agencies.  There  are  come  funda- 
mental considerations  which  must  be  borne  in  mind  and 
which  will  help  us  to  see  the  problem  as  it  afifects  the 
workers.  Most  of  those  in  the  garment  trades  are  for- 
eigners unused  to  our  way  of  thinking.  At  noon  on 
Fifth  Avenue  and  again  at  night  as  the  workers  leave 
for  their  homes,  the  newsboys  sell  papers  printed  in 
Yiddish  characters  almost  exclusively,  and  only  a  few 
English  papers  are  sold  for  several  blocks  below 
Twenty-third  Street.  In  religious  matters  the  gar- 
ment-workers   represent   three  groups:   those    who    are 


62  MEN  AxND  THINGS 

devoted  to  the  faith  of  dieir  fadiers  and  who  are  Jews 
in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word;  those  who  have  drifted 
away  from  the  old  faith  in  the  rush  of  life  in  America, 
and,  antagonistic  to  the  domination  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic faith,  have  not  been  attracted  or  won  by  the  Protes- 
tant faith ;  and  a  third  class  composed  of  those  who  are 
bitterly  hostile  to  all  religions  because  of  the  corruption 
of  the  church  as  they  view  it,  because  of  the  social  in- 
justice of  which  they  are  the  subjects,  and  which  is 
identified  in  their  own  minds  with  the  church  and  re- 
ligious leaders. 

It  is  an  interesting  thing  to  visit  a  social  center  in  either 
Boston  or  New  York.  Ford  Hall  or  Cooper  Union 
serves  as  a  good  illustration.  Here  the  majority  of  the 
people  are  Jews,  radical  through  and  through.  They  are 
intelligently  awake  and  thoroughly  skeptical.  The  Bible 
is  not  an  open  book  to  )tiany  of  these  people,  and  they 
have  not  learned  to  read  history  or  current  events  with 
an  open  mind.  Social  conditions  and  economic  pressure 
make  it  almost  impossible  for  them  to  render  a  straight 
and  just  judgment.  They  have  monstrous  misconcep- 
tions of  Protestants  and  the  Protestant  religion,  for  they 
see  for  the  most  part  only  the  worst  side.  America 
means  to  them,  instead  of  freedom,  hope,  and  independ- 
ence, only  extortionate  profiteering. 

The  Gospel  for  the  Garment-workers.  How  can  we 
overcome  this  prejudice?  How  can  we  give  these  people 
an  adequate  and  intelligible  interpretation  of  the  gospel? 
We  must  respect  their  faith.  It  will  not  solve  the  prob- 
lem to  make  proselytes  of  a  large  number  of  our  new 
Jewish  citizens.  We  need  to  be  definite,  concrete,  and 
practical,  and  to  leave  controversial  matters  and  philo- 


THE  GARMENT  WORKERS  63 

sophical  discussions  out  of  the  situation.  We  need  to 
cultivate  more  reverence  in  our  American  churches,  and 
a  finer  regard  for  the  associations  and  experiences  of  the 
past  of  these  people.  As  these  words  are  being  written, 
I  can  see  from  my  window  the  tower  of  a  church  sur- 
mounted by  a  cross.  It  is  the  Judson  Memorial  Baptist 
Church  on  Washington  Square.  Sunday  after  Sunday 
there  are  gathered  together  large  groups  of  people.  Most 
of  them  live  under  sordid,  cramped  conditions,  but  they 
find  in  this  church  a  ministry  that  appeals  to  them.  The 
church  is  more  interested  in  making  good  Americans 
out  of  th-^se  people,  and  in  interpreting  America  to  them 
than  in  securing  their  membership  in  the  church.  And 
rightly  this  church  is  justified  in  its  attitude.  By  minis- 
tering to  the  people  it  is  gaining  their  allegiance  to  the 
principles  of  Christianity  as  it  could  in  no  other  way. 

To  sum  up  the  chapter,  the  making  of  garments,  like 
other  industries  we  have  considered,  is  highly  specialized. 
It  has  been  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  American 
group.  The  old-fashioned  dressmaking  and  tailor  shops 
have  given  way  to  the  huge  lofts  where  many  factories 
are  turning  out  clothing  for  men,  women,  boys  and  girls 
in  large  quantities.  The  workers  are  all  city  dwellers. 
They  are  all  foreigners,  most  of  them  Jews,  with  a  large 
intermingling  of  Italians.  To  meet  their  needs  and  to 
interpret  the  gospel  to  them  the  church  must  first  of  all 
come  to  know  the  conditions  under  which  they  live.  It 
must  create  a  public  opinion  that  will  dem^.nd  an  adjust- 
ment of  the  difficulties  in  the  trade  itself  and  then  in 
the  homes  of  the  people.  In  the  community  in  which 
they  live  it  must  show  that  the  members  of  the  Protes- 
tant churches  are  the  best  of  friends  and  neighbors. 


CHAPTER  V 
The  World  of  the  Miners 

According  to  the  old  Greek  story  Prometheus  stole 
fire  from  heaven  and  thus  drew  upon  himself  the  anger 
of  the  gods,  because  with  fire  he  was  able  to  work  mir- 
acles and  do  wonders  that  rivaled  the  gods  themselves. 
The  metals  of  the  earth  are  the  instruments  in  the  hands 
of  man  for  accomplishing  the  material  wonders  that 
mark  our  time.  Our  age  has  been  rightly  termed  the 
steel  age,  but,  as  we  shall  see  in  subsequent  chapters, 
this  period  has  its  important  and  unique  character  only 
because  man  knows  how  to  use  fire,  and  because  he 
has  coal  at  his  command. 

The  Riches  of  the  Earth  for  Man.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  ancient  Hebrews  taught  that  God  made 
everything  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race,  and  that 
man  was  the  child  of  his  supreme  favor,  for  in  every 
place  over  the  entire  earth  are  found  the  things  essential 
to  man's  happiness  and  comfort.  Even  in  the  most 
desolate  regions,  with  very  few  exceptions,  a  man  is  able 
to  make  his  way  against  adverse  elements.  The  most  val- 
uable minerals  are  coal,  iron,  copper,  zinc,  lead,  gold,  and 
silver.  Of  course  there  are  many  others  that  are  mined 
and  used  extensively.  The  supply  of  coal  produced  for 
1916  in  the  United  States  alone  was  67,376,364  tons  of 
anthracite  coal  and  502,518,545  tons  of  bituminous  coal. 
During  the  first  nine  months  of  19 17  the  mines  produced 

65 


66  MEN  AND  THINGS 

57,778,097  tons  of  anthracite  coal,  which  is  an  increase 
of  7,847,681  tons  over  a  similar  period  in  1916,  or  an 
increase  of  about  16  per  cent. 

In  the  United  States  the  absolute  necessity  for  coal 
was  never  felt  so  keenly  as  during  the  winter  of  1917-18, 
when  the  Fuel  Administrator  shut  down  all  the  business 
places  for  five  days  and  declared  workless  Mondays  as 
a  measure  of  relief.  The  war  has  demanded  extraordi- 
nary measures,  and  these  have  been  taken  with  a  vigor 
and  decision  that  have  been  really  startling.  The  call 
for  metals  made  by  the  warring  nations  has  been  so  great 
that  mining  is  now  carried  on  at  a  furious  rate.  One 
of  the  Western  mining  papers  uses  as  a  slogan,  "  Get 
the  ore  while  the  prices  are  high."  The  reason  that  the 
Germans  hold  so  stubbornly  to  northern  France  is  be- 
cause of  the  rich  coal  and  iron  mines  in  the  region.  For 
years  following  the  war  there  will  be  an  extraordinary 
demand  for  an  increased  output  of  coal,  iron,  copper, 
and  zinc,  in  fact,  for  all  of  the  metals.  The  task  of  re- 
building the  areas  will  demand  not  only  ingenuity,  but 
all  the  resources  of  all  the  nations  combined. 

The  Producers  of  Coal.  You  have  no  doubt  seen 
the  women  and  children  with  their  baskets  picking  up 
coal  along  the  railroad  tracks  on  the  edge  of  the  city. 
That  small  basket  of  coal  will  probably  be  all  the  fuel 
that  many  of  them  have.  It  is  a  common  sight  to  see 
the  little  foreign  boys  bringing  home  packing-boxes  and 
the  lids  of  boxes  that  they  have  begged  from  the  stores 
to  take  the  place  of  the  coal  they  cannot  get.  Those 
among  us  who  live  in  steam-heated  apartments,  or  in 
communities  near  the  coal-fields  or  wooded  areas,  do  not 
realize  what  a  constant  struggle  is  required  on  the  part 


Z^^aL/^J^Jsd 


.i«».v->»   .    -i. 


CopyriRlif.    Cmln^ I  .iinl    I  inln  u  cmI. 

We  forget  tile  men   vvlio  are  toiling  undergronnil. 


THE  MINERS  dl 

of  the  poor  people  in  the  cities  to  keep  coal  enougli  in 
the  stove  lo  prevent  the  family  from  freezing.  "  The 
only  times  1  was  really  warm  enough  last  winter,"  said  a 
Slovenian  woman  in  Chicago,  "  was  when  I  went  to 
church,  and  then  I  had  to  keep  my  head  muflled  up." 
It  was  said  of  a  group  of  Italians  in  Boston,  "  The  men 
go  to  the  saloon,  the  women  to  tlie  church,  both  for  the 
same  purpose, — to  get  good  and  warm." 

Just  as  we  sometimes  fail  to  realize  how  many  people 
are  working  for  us  to  make  our  clothes  or  to  produce 
our  food,  so  we  forget  the  men  who  are  toiling  under- 
ground to  dig  the  coal  and  mine  the  iron  upon  which 
we  are  so  dependent  for  our  every-day  living.  The  city 
dweller  especially  is  dependent  upon  the  supply  of  coal 
that  comes  to  him  through  retail  sources,  but  in  order 
to  bring  that  coal  to  the  city  there  has  been  a  long  line 
of  workers,  each  one  putting  his  hand  to  the  task  of 
producing  the  necessity. 

Where  the  Coal  Is  Mined.  If  you  should  visit  the 
coal-mining  community,  you  would  first  of  all  be  im- 
pressed with  the  desolation  of  the  place.  The  village  is 
an  ugly,  straggling  affair  with  nothing  to  add  to  its 
beauty  or  hide  its  deformities.  Nearly  all  the  houses 
are  built  alike,  two  and  three  rooms  being  the  average 
size.  In  all  probability  not  one  painted  house  is  to  be 
found  in  the  whole  town,  unless  possibly  it  is  the  front 
of  a  saloon  on  the  main  street.  In  many  of  the  old- 
time  mining  communities  the  fronts  of  the  saloons  were 
all  painted  blue.  Whether  or  not  this  was  done  to  match 
the  color  of  the  patrons'  noses,  no  one  seems  to  know. 
The  fences  are  of  rough  pickets  and  so  broken  and  out 
of  repair  that,  as  one  person  visiting  the  coal  town  for 


68  MEN  AND  THINGS 

the  first  time  said,  "  The  pickets  look  like  broken  teeth 
in  an  old,  dried-up  skull."  There  are  very  few  flowers 
or  gardens,  and  the  deep  black  mud  of  the  winter-time, 
the  black  smoke,  and  the  dust  of  the  dry  season  during 
the  summer  deepen  the  sense  of  desolation  one  feels  in 
the  midst  of  these  villages.  The  schoolhouse  is  a  poor 
one-room  affair;  and  if  there  is  a  church,  it  has  a  weak 
organization  and  is  housed  in  a  building  that  is  little 
if  any  better  than  the  average  in  the  community.  Very 
few  coal-mining  towns  in  Colorado  have  a  church  of  any 
kind.  The  Home  Missions  Council  looked  into  this  mat- 
ter some  years  ago  and  reported  extensively  its  in- 
vestigations. 

The  Coeur  d'Alene  mining  district  of  northern  Idaho 
is  rich  in  ores,  but  poor  in  cultural  and  religious  oppor- 
tunities for  the  people.  In  a  region  lying  along  the 
north  fork  of  the  Coeur  d'Alene  river  there  are  half  a 
dozen  small  towns  where  there  is  not  a  church,  and  it  is 
rarely  that  a  minister  visits  the  region. 

The  Mining  Areas.  Never  before  have  the  common 
necessities  of  life  seemed  so  important  as  they  do  now. 
Canada  produces  large  quantities  of  minerals,  the  chief 
of  which  is  copper.  The  production  for  1916  of  all  the 
minerals  was  valued  at  $177,417,574.  The  coal  and 
principal  metals  produced  in  Canada,  with  their  respec- 
tive amounts  for  the  year  named,  are  as  follows : 

Copper    1 19.770,814  tons 

Nickel    82,958,564     " 

Lead    41,593,680    " 

Zinc  23,315,030     " 

Silver 25,669,172     " 

Coal  14,461,678     " 


THE  MINERS  69 

To  transport  this  amount  of  coal  (the  smallest  ton- 
nage of  all)  there  would  be  required  482,056  freight-cars. 
This  would  make  a  train  almost  4,000  miles  long,  a 
distance  greater  than  from  Nova  Scotia  to  British 
Columbia. 

The  mining  areas  in  the  United  States  are  fairly  well 
defined.  Practically  all  of  the  anthracite  coal  comes 
from  central  and  northern  Pennsylvania,  only  a  little 
being  mined  in  Colorado.  The  largest  bituminous  coal- 
fields are  found  in  Virginia,  Illinois,  Ohio,  Tennessee, 
southeastern  Kansas,  southwestern  Missouri,  Colorado, 
Alabama,  and  some  in  the  west-central  part  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. Iron  is  mined  in  the  northeastern  part  of  Min- 
nesota, northwestern  Wisconsin,  upper  peninsula  of 
Michigan,  Tennessee,  Georgia,  western  Pennsylvania, 
and  in  southeastern  Kansas.  The  copper  regions  are  in 
the  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan,  Arizona,  and  north- 
ern Idaho.  The  chief  lead  district  is  the  Joplin  district 
of  southwestern  Missouri.  This  region  is  matched  in 
large  measure  by  the  Coeur  d'Alene  of  northern  Idaho. 
Lead  and  zinc  are  almost  always  found  together.  Gold  and 
silver  are  mined  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  in  Colorado,  and 
northern  Idaho.  Some  gold  is  found  in  all  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  states  and  small  amounts  in  Georgia.  There 
is  scarcely  a  state  in  the  Union  but  what  produces  to  a 
greater  or  less  amount  all  of  the  metals  that  go  to  make 
up  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  United  States. 

The  Miners  of  King  Coal.  Coal  is  mined  in  three 
ways:  by  sinking  a  shaft  and  then  running  tunnels  out 
from  it  following  the  vein  of  the  coal ;  by  driving  a  tun- 
nel straight  into  the  heart  of  the  mountain ;  or  by  scoop- 
ing it  up  with  a  steam  shovel  and  loading  it  into  cars. 


70  MEN  AND  THINGS 

The  first  two  methods  are  used  in  all  the  mines  of 
Colorado ;  the  latter  method  is  used  in  the  mines  in  south- 
eastern Kansas  and  southwestern  Missouri.  In  a  mine 
where  the  shaft  is  sunk  the  hoist  is  directly  over  the 
mouth  of  the  pit.  The  cages  are  just  like  elevators  and 
drop  to  the  bottom  of  the  pit;  there  the  loaded  cars 
are  pushed  upon  them  and  at  a  signal  the  car  is  brought 
to  the  top  of  the  superstructure  above  the  mine  known 
as  the  tipple.  The  car  is  unloaded  automatically  and 
runs  back  upon  the  cage,  and  is  lowered  into  the  mine 
as  the  second  car  is  brought  up  to  the  surface  very 
rapidly.  At  the  bottom  of  the  mine  and  following  it 
out  along  the  vein  of  coal  there  are  little  railway  tracks. 
The  cars  on  these  tracks  are  pulled  by  mules.  Some 
mines  have  electric  cars,  but  the  mule  is  still  the  motive 
power  in  general  use.  These  mules  are  sentenced  to  the 
mines  for  life.  Stables  are  made  for  them  by  digging  a 
cave  in  one  side  of  the  main  shaft  or  tunnel,  and  here  in 
the  underground  mine  the  mule  lives,  moves,  and  has  his 
being.  Sometimes  the  animals  are  brought  to  the  sur- 
face and  turned  out  to  pasture.  It  is  really  pathetic  to 
see  with  what  joy  they  accept  the  light,  air,  and  freedom 
of  God's  good  world  above  ground. 

The  only  light  in  most  of  the  mines  is  that  given  off 
from  the  little  lamps  carried  on  the  caps  of  the  miners. 
It  is  a  weird  sight  to  walk  through  a  mine  and  see  the 
bobbing  lights ;  to  catch  the  sound  of  pick  and  shovel 
in  the  tunnels  that  cross  and  recross  each  other  at  in- 
tervals ;  to  hear  the  creak  of  the  wheels,  the  slamming  of 
the  doors ;  and  to  see  the  mules  as  they  strain  at  their 
task  like  phantom  engines  hauling  the  loaded  cars  of 
coal.     When  the  men  go  to  work  in  the  morning,  they 


THE  MINERS  71 

are  checked  in  and  let  down  in  the  cage;  when  they 
come  up  they  are  checked  out.  In  the  morqing  when 
they  check  in  they  are  white ;  at  night  they  are  black. 
Thus  the  color  line  is  completely  eliminated  by  working 
in  a  mine.  The  work  is  done  in  little  rooms  or  pockets. 
Each  miner  has  to  work  out  his  own  room.  He  drills  the 
hole,  puts  in  the  charge  of  powder ;  and  when  he  has 
everything  in  readiness,  fires  the  charge  that  brings 
down  the  coal ;  then  he  and  his  partner  ( for  two  men 
work  together,  one  is  called  the  miner,  the  other  is 
known  as  the  buddy)  shovel  the  coal  into  the  cars,  and 
push  them  out  into  the  main  line  of  the  mine  tramway 
track.  The  miner  and  his  buddy  may  be  both  white 
men,  or  the  miner  may  be  a  white  man  and  the  buddy 
a  Negro.  They  look  alike  as  they  work  in  the  semi- 
darkness  and  the  common  tasks  eventually  make  them 
appreciate  each  other  for  what  they  are  and  what 
they  do. 

The  miner  has  to  follow  the  vein.  He  must  put  in  the 
braces  to  protect  himself  against  the  falling  roof,  must  re- 
move all  the  stone  and  slate,  and  mine  only  clean  coal. 
This  he  shovels  into  his  car.  It  is  weighed  and  tagged, 
tally  is  kept,  and  at  the  end  of  the  day  he  is  credited  with 
so  many  tons  and  is  paid  accordingly.  When  the  vein 
is  thick  and  the  miner  can  stand  upright,  his  work  is  hard 
and  monotonous  enough ;  but  when  the  vein  is  thin,  it 
is  necessary  for  him  to  stoop  or  to  lie  down  in  order 
to  get  the  coal.  This  makes  the  work  hard  almost  beyond 
human  endurance.  It  is  no  wonder  that  mining  greatly 
affects  the  character  of  the  men  involved  in  it.  No  one 
can  spend  eight  or  ten  hours  underground  every  day 
doing  that  kind  of  work  without  having  the  place  and 


72  MEN  AND  THINGS 

the  work  stamp  itself  upon  his  mind  and  his  character. 
Life  underground  spoils  even  the  temper  of  a  mule! 

Accidents.  Mining  develops  the  spirit  of  adventure. 
There  is  always  a  risk.  Alining  is  a  dangerous  operation 
and  is  classified  as  extra  hazardous.  There  is  continual 
danger  from  falling  stones,  and  the  miner  is  always 
gambling  with  fate.  A  study  of  the  coroner's  report  in 
any  country  where  mining  is  carried  on  supplies  con- 
crete evidence  that  a  large  number  of  men  are  killed 
in  the  mines  from  one  cause  and  another.  There  is 
the  danger  from  the  deadly  carbon-monoxide  gas  and 
another  danger  from  the  explosion  of  the  coal-dust.  As 
the  coal  is  mined  a  certain  proportion  of  it  is  ground 
into  powder,  and  this  fills  the  air  and  becomes  a  power- 
ful explosive.  Precautions  are  taken  in  most  cases. 
The  mines  are  sprinkled  and  state  and  national  govern- 
ments have  done  much  to  make  mining  safe,  but  at  the 
best  the  occupation  claims  an  unusually  heavy  toll  in  life 
and  limb. 

According  to  statistics  regarding  deaths  of  miners  dur- 
ing the  years  1907  to  1912,  it  is  shown  that  23.2  out  of 
every  hundred  died  from  accidents  ;  and  among  the  metal- 
liferous miners  24.7  per  cent,  of  all  deaths  were  caused  by 
accidents.  A  great  many  industrial  accidents  are  due  to 
failure  on  the  part  of  the  management  to  make  proper 
provision  against  accident,  and  to  keep  abreast  with  the 
increase  in  efficiency  of  the  machinery  and  output  in 
the  matter  of  precautionary  measures.  Also  it  is  now 
known  that  industrial  accidents  are  caused  by  excessive 
fatigue,  carelessness,  and  ignorance  on  the  part  of  the 
workers  themselves.  Taking  all  of  these  things  into 
consideration,  however,  we  must  realize  that  a  large  pro- 


THE  MINERS  73 

portion  of  the  accidents  and  fatalities  in  the  coal-mines 
are  inherent  in  the  business  itself. 

Returns  for  Labor  Received  by  the  Miners.  Coal 
has  to  be  dug  where  nature  put  it.  Therefore,  the  mining 
village  is  almost  certain  to  be  located  in  a  desolate  re- 
gion, and  thus  the  miner  and  his  family  will  be  denied 
many  of  the  good  things  that  other  people  enjoy,  because 
of  the  conditions  under  which  they  are  compelled  to  live. 
We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  enormously  large  wages 
paid  to  the  miner.  Unfortunately  this  condition  is  not 
true ;  for  the  stories  we  hear  of  the  big  wages  the  miners 
receive  are  very  largely  fictitious.  In  the  Colorado 
mines  it  is  shown  by  actual  study  of  the  statistics  taken 
at  the  time  of  the  last  great  strike  in  19 14,  that  the 
average  wage  for  the  miner  when  actually  employed  was 
$4.58  a  day;  but  other  figures  given  at  the  same  period 
show  that  other  miners  were  paid  an  average  wage  of 
only  $2.61  a  day.  It  is  impossible  to  get  at  the  facts  as 
to  wages. 

The  miner  is  forced  to  buy  his  powder,  oil,  pay  doctor's 
fee,  blacksmithing  charges,  union  dues,  and  other  ex- 
penses. These  are  deducted,  so  that  the  wage  is  reduced 
to  the  point  where  perhaps  not  more  than  one  per  cent. 
of  the  entire  number  of  workers  receive  as  much  as 
$25  a  week.  In  fact,  the  wage  is  so  small  compared  to 
the  difficulties  of  the  work  and  the  hardships  of  living, 
that  the  miner  finds  it  almost  impossible  to  move  freely  in 
order  to  better  his  condition.  The  result  of  this  situation 
has  been  that,  whereas  formerly  nearly  all  the  miners 
were  English-speaking  men,  they  are  now  practically  all 
non-English-speaking  immigrants.  In  the  camp  at  Lud- 
low, where  the  miners  lived  after  they  and  their  families 


74  MEN  AND  THINGS 

were  driven  out  of  their  homes  in  Col(^rado  during  the 
strike  of  1914,  there  were  twenty-two  nationalities,  and 
they  were  living  together  in  some  sort  of  amity. 

Workers  in  the  Metal  Mines.  The  workers  in  the 
metal  mines  have  a  problem  different  from  that  of  the 
workers  in  the  coal-mines.  The  copper  country  of 
IMichigan  located  on  Lake  Superior  in  the  upper  penin- 
sula is  the  most  famous  metal-producii.g  region  of  the 
United  States.  These  mines  have  been  operated  for 
half  a  century;  and  for  the  most  part  a  humane  policy 
has  been  followed  and,  consequently,  the  cities  and  towns 
in  the  region  have  developed  some  civic  pride,  and  have 
an  unusually  high  reputation  for  orderliness  and  mo- 
rality. There  are  very  few  of  the  bad  features  which 
one  is  accustomed  to  find  in  such  communities.  The  dis- 
trict has  approximately  forty-two  mines  and  the  products 
from  these  mines  amount  to  fifty  million  dollars  a  year. 
The  shafts  of  these  copper  mines  are  the  deepest  holes 
that  have  ever  been  dug  in  the  earth  as  far  as  we  know. 
The  "  Red  Jacket  "  mine  is  almost  a  mile  and  a  quarter 
deep.  The  shaft  of  a  copper  mine  is  pierced  every  one 
hundred  feet  by  levels  or  tunnels.  The  trams  run  in 
these  levels  to  the  chambers  where  the  rock  is  cut  and 
are  known  as  stopes.  Drills  are  operated  by  compressed 
air;  the  miner  bores  the  holes,  places  the  dynamite  charge 
in  readiness,  and  touches  ofif  the  charge  as  he  leaves  his 
work  at  the  end  of  the  shift.  The  broken  rock  is  picked 
up  during  the  next  shift,  loaded  into  the  tram-cars  by 
the  trammer,  and  then  dumped  into  the  skip  or  little 
car  by  means  of  which  it  is  raised  to  the  surface. 

In  the  Coeur  d'Alene  field  the  process  of  mining  in 
the  lead  and  zinc  mines  is  very  much  the  same  as  that 


THE  MINERS  75 

in  the  copper  mines  of  Michigan.  The  Coeur  d'Alene 
region  of  northern  Idaho  is  a  district  in  itself.  It  might 
almost  be  called  a  province,  it  is  so  extensive.  The  drills 
that  are  used  by  the  miners  are  protected  in  some  cases 
by  a  stream  of  water  which  pours  off  the  end  of  its  point 
as  it  comes  in  contact  with  the  rock.  This  prevents  the 
dust  from  flying  and  being  breathed  by  the  worker. 
These  drills  are  just  now  being  introduced.  The  old- 
fashioned  drill  had  no  such  protection  and  is  called  by 
the  miner  the  widow-maker,  because  of  the  gruesome 
effect  on  the  worker. 

Wages.  The  wages  in  the  Calumet  district  as  well  as 
in  the  Coeur  d'Alene  section  are  not,  and  never  have  been, 
adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  men,  nor  are  they  proportion- 
ate to  the  returns  received  from  the  work  that  these  men 
have  been  doing.  Wages  must  be  considered  on  the  basis 
of  comparative  value.  The  type  of  the  worker,  how- 
ever, and  the  risks  incurred,  and  the  opportunity  for 
improving  the  worker  himself  must  all  be  taken  into 
account.  When  we  remember  the  enormous  profits  made 
on  the  metals,  especially  within  the  last  few  years,  we 
will  find  that  the  increase  in  the  wages  of  the  men  has 
not  been  enough  to  meet  the  increased  cost  of  living. 
Wages  have  advanced  about  20  per  cent,  and  living  ex- 
penses 140  per  cent.  Some  welfare  work  is  being  under- 
taken in  almost  all  of  the  mining  communities.  But  wel- 
fare work  cannot  supplement  poor  wages,  nor  does  it 
do  away  with  the  feeling  of  unrest  always  present  in 
the  community  and  which  threatens  to  break  out  in  re- 
bellion and  throw  the  whole  district  into  disorder. 

The  Church  and  the  Miner.  The  pastor  of  the 
miners'  church  told  the  story  of  the  desolation  in  the 


76  MEN  AND  THINGS 

life  of  his  people.  He  said:  "  There  are  no  chances  for 
cultural  work.  When  I  talk  about  the  higher  life  the 
people  listen  to  me  as  if  I  were  giving  a  lecture  on  Mars. 
It  is  something  that  is  more  or  less  interesting  because 
I  am  able  to  make  it  interesting,  but  there  is  no  special 
personal  interest  in  it.  All  of  my  people  live  in  this 
desolate  and  isolated  village.  There  is  nothing  attractive 
anywhere  around.  The  superintendent  and  a  few  of  the 
English-speaking  workers  live  five  miles  away  in  a  place 
that  calls  itself  a  city.  There  are  five  other  villages  like 
mine ;  no  one  from  the  other  places  ever  comes  here  ex- 
cept on  business.  Every  Saturday  night  most  of  the 
men  go  to  the  '  city.'  On  Saturday,  or  pay-day  evening, 
the  stores,  amusement  places,  saloons,  and  the  principal 
streets  of  that  center  are  filled  with  a  heterogeneous 
mass  of  people  of  all  races  and  there  is  a  regular  babel 
of  tongues.  The  destroying  forces  work  havoc  with  my 
people.  Now  what  can  I  do  to  meet  the  conditions?" 
Listening  to  him  I  wondered  and  went  away  still  won- 
dering. In  these  places  where  men  are  working  to  pro- 
duce the  coal  for  us,  and  the  metals  that  form  the 
foundation-stone  of  our  civilization,  there  must  be  some- 
thing more  than  merely  the  touch  of  charity;  there 
must  be  worked  out  a  plan  by  which  true  brotherhood 
may  become  a  reality.  We  are  accepting  the  gift  of 
these  men,  the  things  that  they  produce  at  such  risk,  and 
we  are  forgetting  the  men  themselves.  They  are  serving 
our  interests  and  we  have  a  responsibility  for  them,  but 
what  are  we  doing  to  meet  the  situation  ? 

At  the  close  of  the  Colorado  coal  strike  a  plan  was 
inaugurated  for  bettering  conditions  throughout  the  state. 
This  plan  has  much  to  commend  it  to  the  public  favor. 


THE  MINERS  -^ 

It  is  not  wholly  democratic  and  it  has  many  features  that 
can  be  criticized.  Even  viewed  in  the  best  light  it  fails 
to  solve  the  fundamental  difficulties  in  the  situation — but 
it  is  a  long  step  ahead  of  anything  that  has  ever  been 
done  before.  One  of  the  miners,  while  discussing  the 
plan,  said :  "  It  is  all  right  as  far  as  it  goes.  The  best 
thing  about  it  is  that  the  company  promises  to  allow  us 
to  join  our  union.  When  we  get  the  district  organized 
100  per  cent,  we  will  put  some  real  democracy  into  the 
plan." 

The  features  of  the  plan  may  be  stated  broadly  in  these 
four  propositions : 

First  of  all,  the  men  working  the  mines  are  to  be 
recognized  as  partners  in  the  enterprise  and  are  to  have 
a  voice  in  the  management  of  the  mines.  They  elect 
their  representatives  who  meet  with  the  representatives 
of  the  company  and  together  they  work  out  their  own 
problems. 

Second,  the  bad  conditions  which  are  chronic  in  the 
mines  and  which  have  disturbed  the  peace  are  to  be  cor- 
rected as  far  as  possible. 

Third,  the  physical  conditions  in  the  village  are  to  be 
improved.  Better  houses  are  to  be  built  and  they  are  to 
be  painted.  Provisions  are  made  so  that  the  miners  can 
have  gardens. 

Fourth,  special  arrangements  are  made  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  better  schools,  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation with  club  privileges,  and  help  is  given  in  organiz- 
ing and  maintaining  churches  and  other  religious 
agencies. 

All  of  these  things  point  to  a  better  day  that  is  com- 
ing, and  is  a  great  advance  over  the  attitude  taken  by 


78  MEN  AND  THINGS 

llie  old-time  mine  owner  who  replied  to  a  committee 
which  warned  him  of  impending  trouhle,  "Let  them 
start  something  if  they  want  to  find  out  who  is  hoss." 

The  battle  has  not  been  won,  and  will  not  be  won,  until 
the  church  makes  a  demand  for  industrial  justice  its 
chief  object,  and  makes  democracy  really  applicable  in 
every  mining  district  and  community  throughout  the 
whole  nation. 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  World  of  the  Steel  Workers 

"  The  sky-line  of  your  cities  is  the  monument  of  your 
civilization."  These  words  summed  up  the  impression  of 
an  Oriental  visiting  America  for  the  first  time.  He  had 
seen  everything  of  America  that  could  be  shown  during 
his  two  months'  visit.  Boards  of  trades  in  the  various 
cities  entertained  him.  Figures  concerning  miles  of 
pavements,  hundreds  of  miles  of  trolley  lines,  millions 
of  dollars  in  the  various  banks,  thousands  of  bales  of  cot- 
ton, millions  of  tons  of  coal,  iron,  steel,  potatoes,  rice, 
wheat,  corn,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  things  that  go  to 
make  America  great  had  been  quoted  to  him.  He  was 
apparently  impressed  by  what  he  saw  but  did  not  become 
enthusiastic,  and  accepted  every  statement  with  becoming 
politeness.  No  one  could  tell  what  moved  him  most. 
When  he  summed  up  his  total  impressions  and  expressed 
his  opinion,  it  showed  that  he  had  really  formed  a  most 
exact  judgment  of  that  which  makes  the  true  material 
basis  of  our  national  life.  The  skyscraper  building  is 
the  only  important  contribution  that  America  has  made 
to  the  art  of  architecture.  This  structural  development, 
which  is  so  truly  Am.erican,  has  been  made  possible  only 
because  we  have  learned  how  to  use  steel  for  the  frame- 
work of  the  gigantic  construction. 

The  Steel  Industry.   Interesting  statistics  as  to  the  ex- 

79 


8o  MEN  AND  THINGS 

tent  of  the  steel  industry  have  been  compiled.  The 
United  States  and  Canada  together  produce  nbout  half  of 
the  world's  output.  According  to  the  last  figures,  there 
are  employed  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry  of  this  coun- 
try 1,426,014  workers.  At  the  present  time  the  capacity 
of  all  the  shops  is  taxed  to  the  utmost  and  hundreds  of 
new  factories  have  been  erected.  Canada  and  the  United 
States  are  cooperating  in  the  production  of  ships.  The 
huge  bridge  works  are  giving  over  all  of  their  machinery 
and  time  to  the  building  of  new  boats  to  carry  men  and 
food  in  support  of  the  Allied  armies  in  France. 

The  Use  of  Steel.  Steel  is  made  by  melting  iron  and 
combining  it  with  a  certain  proportion  of  carbon.  The 
softest  grade  of  steel  contains  less  than  one  per  cent,  of 
carbon,  the  hardest  contains  about  thirty  per  cent.  Iron 
furnishes  almost  every  useful  thing  that  is  necessary  to 
our  life  in  the  community.  When  we  have  food  and 
clothes,  we  are  then  ready  to  take  up  the  routine  of  liv- 
ing a  part  of  the  common  life  of  our  city  or  town.  Iron 
is  used  extensively  in  building  our  homes.  The  house 
is  held  together  with  nails  made  of  iron ;  its  plumbing, 
its  lighting,  its  heating  are  all  made  possible  by  the  use  of 
steel. 

Possibly  the  building  in  which  we  work  is  a  steel 
building,  if  not,  it  may  be  made  of  reenforced  concrete 
and  this  form  of  construction  is  dependent  upon  the  use 
of  iron.  The  product  toward  which  we  are  contributing 
our  industry,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  dependent  upon  com- 
merce, transportation,  and  communication ;  and  these 
great  branches  of  activity  are  dependent  upon  steel. 
Iron  can  be  melted  and  cast  into  a  thousand  different 
shapes.     It  is  used  to  make  the   most  simple   kitchen 


THE  STEEL  WORKERS  8i 

utensil  and  the  largest  and  most  complicated  machinery. 
Again,  it  is  melted  in  larger  quantity,  combined  with  car- 
bon, and  put  through  the  rolling-mills.  By  this  process 
it  may  become  steel  rails,  or  be  made  into  plates  and 
huge  sheets  that  form  the  protective  outer  skin  of  the 
great  ships  of  war.  It  is  rolled  out  thin  and  corrugated 
to  be  used  as  sheeting  for  houses,  and  sides  of  freight- 
cars,  and  roofs  of  houses;  or  it  may  issue  in  things  as 
delicate  as  knitting-needles  or  the  finest  springs  which 
form  the  adjustment  and  motive  power  in  the  most  costly 
watches.  It  is  used  in  the  construction  of  buildings  that 
tower  up  hundreds  of  feet  above  the  level  of  the  street, 
and  is  the  only  thing  that  has  been  found  so  far  that 
can  be  used  successfully  for  such  a  purpose.  At  the 
same  time  this  most  necessary  substance  is  formed  into 
pliable  rope  and  used  to  draw  the  miner  and  the  minerals 
he  mines  from  the  depths  of  the  earth,  and  to  keep  the 
elevators  running  up  and  down  in  hotels,  office  buildings, 
and  apartment  houses.  The  finest  cambric  needles  are 
first  cousins  to  the  great  guns  with  which  the  Germans 
were  able  to  shell  Paris  from  a  distance  of  seventy-five 
miles. 

The  advance  in  recent  years  in  invention  and  new 
processes  as  applied  to  the  manufacture  of  steel  has 
brought  about  more  changes  in  the  industrial  life  of  the 
world  than  any  other  thing.  The  cities  of  the  future 
will  all  be  steel  cities.  We  have  already  built  our  cities 
twice — once  of  wood  and  once  of  brick — and  we  are  now 
building  them  of  steel.  An  advertisement  in  a  hotel  in 
a  Middle- Western  city  reads :  "  This  hotel  is  built  with- 
out a  stick  of  wood.  We  could  roast  an  ox  in  the  room 
next  to  yours  and  never  disturb  you."     Steel  mesh  is 


82  MEN  AND  TillNGS 

replacing  lath  in  ceilings,  and  ornamental  steel  ceilings 
are  replacing  pla.sler.  In  subway  systems  cjuaiitities  of 
steel  have  been  used  for  tunnels;  the  elevated  railroads 
are  prolonged  bridges.  Williamsburg  Bridge  between 
New  York  and  Brooklyn  cost  $20,000,000,  and  45,000 
tons  of  steel  were  used  in  its  construction.  One  pound  in 
every  ten  of  all  the  steel  manufactured  is  made  into  wire. 
The  Brooklyn  Bridge  cables  have  each  6,400  strands  of 
wire.  Other  wires  made  of  steel  have  approximately  a 
dimension  of  one  tenth  the  thickness  of  a  hair.  A  carpet 
tack  is  an  insignificant  sort  of  thing,  but  one  factory  in 
Chicago  produced  3,000,000  pounds  of  these  tacks  in  a 
year.  Steel  goes  into  furniture,  is  made  into  barrels ; 
utilized  in  art  work,  so  that  the  value  of  common  iron 
when  refined  and  drawn  out  to  the  highest  possible 
utility  makes  steel  the  most  precious  of  all  metals  to-day. 
Watch-screws  cost  $1,600  a  pound  and  hair  springs  twice 
this  amount. 

The  Making  of  Steel.  The  workshop  of  civilization 
is  now  on  the  west  side  of  the  Atlantic  because  of  the 
vast  manufacturing  establishments  producing  steel  on 
this  side  of  the  ocean.  The  so-called  Bessemer  process 
in  making  steel  has  brought  about  a  change  that  is  almost 
as  revolutionary  in  its  far-reaching  results  as  any  of  the 
great  revolutions  in  the  past.  Within  thirty  years  Amer- 
ican resources  have  been  developed,  and  American 
methods  have  been  reorganized  with  such  amazing  rapid- 
ity that  the  United  States  has  to-day,  together  with  the 
natural  advantage,  the  means  at  hand  for  utilizing  its  al- 
most inexhaustible  supplies  of  fuel  and  iron.  The  world 
needs  these  supplies  and  America  is  glad  that  she  is 
able  to  do  her  part  in  supplying  them. 


THE  STEEL  WORKERS  83 

Steel  has  been  made  for  centuries,  but  until  a  few 
years  ago,  the  process  was  slow  and  costly,  and  the  tools 
with  which  the  men  worked  were  really  treasures.  In 
those  days  a  pocket-knife  was  a  thing  of  great  value. 
The  railroads  used  iron  rails  but  these  soon  wore  out. 
If  it  had  been  suggested  that  steel  be  used  a  protest 
would  have  been  made  on  the  grounds  that  steel  is  too 
expensive.  Trains  had  to  be  shortened;  coaches  and 
locomotives  built  of  light  material  because  iron  rails 
and  bridges  could  not  stand  the  strain.  As  land  in 
the  cities  became  more  valuable  and  taller  buildings  were 
needed,  stone  and  brick  not  proving  adaptable  and  too 
expensive,  the  Bessemer  process,  which  manufactured 
steel  cheaply  and  in  great  quantities,  came  to  meet  a  long- 
felt  need.  Iron  was  plentiful  but  the  process  of  con- 
verting it  into  steel  had  not  been  mastered.  The  great 
difficulty  in  manufacturing  steel  is  to  get  just  the  right 
proportion  of  carbon  mixed  with  the  iron.  The  Besse- 
mer system  takes  all  the  carbon  out  and  then  puts  back 
into  it  the  quantity  that  is  needed.  Tons  of  molten  iron 
are  run  into  an  immense  pear-shaped  vessel  called  a  con- 
verter. Blasts  of  air  are  forced  in  from  below.  These 
unite  with  the  carbon  and  the  impurities  such  as  sulphur 
and  silicon  are  destroyed.  There  is  a  roar  and  clatter 
and  a  terrific  din.  A  great  bolt  of  red  flame  shoots  forth 
many  feet  from  the  mouth  of  the  converter.  Its  color 
changes  from  red  to  yellow  and  then  to  white.  When 
the  flame  becomes  white  the  workers  know  that  the  car- 
bon and  other  impurities  are  all  gone;  and  this  is  the 
signal  for  the  blast  of  air  to  be  turned  off.  Then  a 
quantity  of  special  iron  ore  in  melted  form,  containing 
the  right  amount  of  carbon  to  convert  the  whole  into 


84  MEN  AKD  THIXGS 

sleel  of  the  desired  degree  of  hardness,  is  poured  into 
the  purified  molten  iron  in  the  converter.  This  huge 
converter  is  perfectly  poised  upon  pivots  so  that  it  can 
be  moved  with  very  little  effort.  The  molten  steel  at  the 
next  stage  is  poured  from  the  converter  into  square  molds 
and  the  blocks  resulting  from  it  are  called  blooms.  These 
are  then  started  through  the  mill,  passed  under  and  be- 
tween rollers  of  different  shapes  and  kinds,  and  drawn 
out  into  plates,  rails,  or  beams. 

The  Steel  Factory  or  Rolling-mill.  One  of  the  fore- 
most pictures  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in 
New  York  is  a  picture  of  a  steel-mill.  It  seems  to  be  a 
prosaic  subject  but  it  makes  an  appealing  picture,  and 
one  typical  of  our  modern  world.  Some  one  has  de- 
scribed a  steel-mill  as  a  modern  materialization  of 
Dante's  Inferno.  The  sky  above  Pittsburgh,  Birming- 
ham, and  other  steel  centers  is  aflame  at  night  as  the 
process  of  manufacturing  is  carried  on  in  the  miles  of 
buildings  that  contain  the  workers  and  the  machinery. 
To  step  into  one  of  these  steel  factories  even  in  broad 
daylight  is  to  step  out  of  the  world  of  reality  into  the 
semi-reality  of  a  new  and  unknown  world.  Most  of  the 
men  work  stripped  to  the  waist.  The  long  ribbons  of 
red  hot  steel  writhe  and  twist  about  the  length  of  the 
room.  The  jangle  of  chains  mingles  with  the  creaking 
of  the  machinery  above  our  heads.  The  sparks  are  flying 
and  a  bluish  haze  hovers  about  the  heads  of  the  men  like 
some  unholy  halo  as  they  move  back  and  forth  appearing 
as  gnomes  in  the  unnatural  light  of  the  place.  There 
is  a  peculiar  odor  that  we  instinctively  associate  with  the 
blacksmith  shop  that  used  to  stand  at  the  side  of  the 
Street  on  the  way  between  our  house  and  the  butcher 


THE  STEEL  WORKERS  85 

shop  where  we  used  to  be  sent  every  day  for  the  meat 
for  dinner.  Everything'  moves  with  feverish  haste.  No 
one  lags.  Every  man  knows  his  task  and  does  it.  He 
must  keep  up. 

The  days  are  unusually  long  in  the  steel  mills.  It 
used  to  be  that  the  men  worked  twelve  hours  a  day  and 
seven  days  a  week.  This  has  been  changed  now  in  most 
of  the  mills,  but  even  yet  there  is  a  great  deal  of  twelve- 
hour  work  and  a  great  deal  of  Sunday  labor.  The  rumble 
of  the  cranes  above  the  heads  of  the  gnome-like  men  at 
work  in  the  building  fills  our  ears  with  an  unearthly 
sound.  The  peculiar  glare  of  the  gigantic  open  hearth 
changes  at  frequent  intervals  as  the  white  cascade  of 
molten  metal  announces  the  beginning  of  the  shaping 
process  of  the  new  rail  or  the  new  plate  for  some  new 
man-of-war,  or  the  beam  that  is  to  live  for  centuries  in 
some  skyscraper.  These  men  working  in  this  mill  are 
kneading  the  metal  into  shape,  for  as  it  goes  under  the 
rollers  it  is  pressed  and  twisted  until  the  final  process  is 
completed. 

Accidents.  If  it  was  a  lucky  day  when  we  visited  the 
steel-mill  there  were  no  serious  accidents.  Men  are  being 
continually  hurt  in  the  works.  A  report  concerning  one 
says :  "  John  Schwobboda  and  Joseph  Mikelliffyky  were 
standing  near  one  of  the  hearths.  Something  went 
wrong,  and  instead  of  the  steel  coming  out  in  an 
orderly  stream  it  broke  out  and  before  these  two  could 
get  away  they  were  caught  in  the  midst  of  the  stream 
and  absorbed  by  the  burning  metal."  This  thing  has 
happened  many  times.  The  percentage  of  deaths  due 
to  accidents  and  injuries  during  the  last  ten  years  among 
soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  United  States  has  been  about 


86  MEN  AND  THINGS 

twelve  to  the  thousand ;  in  the  same  period  with  the 
workers  in  the  steel-mills  it  has  been  about  sixteen  to 
the  thousand. 

Wages  and  Conditions  of  Labor.  The  toil  is  strenu- 
ous and  the  hazards  great;  the  hours  are  long  and  the 
product  is  of  almost  incalculable  value.  What  do  men 
get  out  of  it?  They  are  the  servants  of  civilization  and 
without  them  we  would  have  no  such  trade  as  we  have 
to-day,  we  would  have  no  commerce  and  no  progress. 
Steel  is  king.  When  the  price  of  steel  is  up  to  normal, 
times  are  good ;  when  the  price  of  steel  is  down,  times 
are  bad.  A  Pittsburgh  man  said  that  steel  is  the  ele- 
vator which  carries  civilization,  "  The  world  goes  up  or 
goes  down  with  the  price  of  steel  rails."  The  workers 
are  the  subjects  and  the  slaves  of  this  king.  They  are 
giving  their  lives  as  well  as  their  time  in  fealty  to  him. 
Yet  how  little  the  average  person  knows  of  the  lives  of 
these  men. 

A  genius  for  mathematics  has  estimated  that  if  the  587 
rolling-mills  in  the  United  States  were  set  end  to  end  in  a 
circle  around  Pittsburgh  it  would  be  100  miles  in  diam- 
eter, inside  of  this  circle  can  be  formed  another  circle 
three  quarters  as  large  if  we  set  end  to  end  the  532 
■smaller  steel-mills  and  3,161  puddling  furnaces,  where 
the  iron  is  first  melted  and  made  into  bars  called  pigs. 
There  are  577  open-hearth  works,  or  factories  that  manu- 
facture steel  by  another  process  much  slov/cr  than  the 
Bessemer,  but  having  certain  advantages  because  the 
process  does  not  have  to  be  carried  on  so  rapidly.  These 
works  would  make  a  third  circle  50  miles  across.  The 
410  other  furnaces  of  various  kinds  would  form  a  fourth 
circle  35  miles  in  diameter.     If  all  the  Bessemer  con- 


THE  STEEL  WORKERS  87 

verters  were  made  into  one  great  big"  converter  and  put 
in  the  center,  it  would  be  a  mile  in  circumference  and 
would  pour  a  river  of  molten  steel  every  hour. 

The  furnaces  are  fed  literally  mountains  of  ore  every 
year.  The  families  dependent  upon  the  iron  and  steel 
trade  for  their  living,  if  gathered  together,  would  form 
a  state  more  populous  than  Illinois.  The  steel  business 
thinks  its  own  thoughts,  prints  its  own  literature,  and 
very  largely  makes  its  own  laws.  There  is  no  trade  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  equal  to  it.  The  results  of  the 
present  world  war  hang  in  the  balance.  The  needs  come 
back  definitely  to  the  steel  industry.  If  we  can  get  more 
workers  we  can  get  more  steel.  If  we  get  more  steel, 
we  can  build  more  ships,  and  if  we  can  get  more  ships, 
we  can  get  more  soldiers,  more  ammunition,  and  more 
food  with  which  to  fight  the  war  for  democracy. 

The  year  1916  was  the  most  prosperous  one  which 
the  American  steel  trade  has  ever  known ;  manufacturers 
especially  were  driven  to  the  limit  of  their  capacity.  The 
purchases  amounted  to  startling  proportions.  Wages  were 
increased  so  that  the  workman  shared  in  a  measure  in 
the  general  prosperity.  Three  advances  were  made,  each 
time  approximating  10  per  cent.  The  workmen  are  paid 
on  a  sliding  schedule  thus  benefiting  by  the  rise  in  the 
value  of  the  product  they  make.  Never  have  workmen 
received  such  wages  as  are  now  being  paid  to  the  work- 
men of  America.  But  over  against  this  increase  in 
wages  must  be  considered  the  increase  in  the  cost  of 
living,  and  also  the  base  line,  or  average  wage  in  days 
before  the  war  upon  which  these  increases  are  figured. 
Hours  are  still  very  long  and  no  process  has  been  de- 
vised for  making  the  work  very  much  easier  or  less 


88  MEN  AND  THINGS 

wearing  upon  the  individual  worker.  Investigators  who 
made  their  report  in  1912  said  that  during  the  year 
1910,  the  period  covered  by  their  investigation,  29  per 
cent,  of  the  employees  in  the  blast  furnaces  and  steel 
works  and  rolling-mills  ordinarily  worked  seven  days  a 
week;  24  per  cent,  worked  eighty-four  hours  or  more  a 
week.    This  means  a  twelve-hour  day  seven  days  a  week. 

1  hese  long  hours  were  not  confined  to  the  men  in  the 
blast-furnace  department,  where  there  is  a  real  necessity 
for  continual  toil,  but  to  a  large  extent  to  the  other 
departments,  where  no  such  necessity  existed,  except  the 
necessity  of  making  all  the  profits  possible  from  the 
workers.  When  the  shift  was  made  from  day  to  night 
work  or  from  night  to  day  work,  the  employees  making 
the  shift  were  required  to  remain  on  duty  without  relief 
for  periods  of  from  eighteen  to  twenty-four  hours  con- 
secutively. No  one  can  visit  a  steel-mill  and  not  feel  that 
there  is  something  merciless  in  the  way  the  workers  are 
being  goaded  by  invisible  forces  to  keep  their  speed  at 
the  topmost  notch.  The  very  nature  of  the  work  is  such 
that  men  are  forced  to  labor  at  high  tension.  The  mill 
stops  for  nothing  either  day  or  night.  "  You  must  draw 
or  be  dragged  to  death,"  said  one  of  the  workers. 

A  steel  employee  in  South  Chicago  made  good  wages 
but  was  a  hard  drinker  and  with  his  companions  spent 
most  of  the  evenings  in  the  saloons  so  that  there  was 
rarely  a  night  that  he  went  to  bed  sober.  A  friend  of 
the  family  had  a  chance  to  talk  with  him  about  the  sit- 
uation and  tried  to  argue  with  him  to  show  him  the 
folly  of  drinking.  His  reply  was,  "Why,  who  cares? 
The  mill  drives  me  all  the  day  long  and  dries  me  all  up. 
I  have  to  draw,  draw,  draw,  or  be  dragged.    By  the  end 


THE  STEEL  WORKERS  89 

of  the  day  there  is  only  one  thing  that  I  want  and  that 
is  beer." 

A  large  proportion  of  the  workers  in  the  steel-mills 
are  immigrants.  There  are  Magyars,  Poles,  Slovaks, 
Croatians,  Italians,  as  well  as  Austro-Hungarians,  and 
all  the  other  races  mixed  in.  Many  of  the  men  are 
single,  or  if  they  are  married  they  have  left  their  wives 
in  the  old  country.  The  wage  is  very  largely  based  on 
the  needs  of  a  single  man.  Nearly  all  the  families  take 
boarders.  This  reduces  the  cost  of  living  and  in  some 
of  these  families,  the  "  boarding  boss  "  as  he  is  known, 
is  the  head  of  the  household  consisting  of  himself,  his 
wife,  his  children,  and  anywhere  from  four  to  sixteen 
boarders  or  lodgers.  Each  lodger  pays  the  boarding  boss 
a  fixed  sum,  usually  two  or  three  dollars  a  month  for 
lodging,  cooking,  and  washing.  The  food  is  bought  by 
the  boss  and  its  cost  shared  individually  by  the  members 
of  the  group.  A  study  was  made  of  a  community  in 
Johnstown,  Pennsylvania,  and  it  was  found  that  the  food 
consumed  was  cheap  beef,  bread,  and  coffee.  Some  of 
the  people  used  vegetables  sparingly.  The  Italians  ate 
only  a  small  quantity  of  meat,  but  used  large  quantities 
of  vegetables,  spaghetti,  bread,  and  olive  oil.  The  Austro- 
Hungarians  used  vast  quantities  of  meat. 

Houses  and  Homes.  The  housing  conditions  among 
the  poorly  paid  steel  workers  are  invariably  bad.  In  a 
part  of  Pittsburgh  known  as  the  "  strip  "  the  living  con- 
ditions are  bad  almost  beyond  belief.  The  reason  given 
for  this  situation  is  that  the  wages  are  so  low  no  better 
is  possible.  The  standard  of  living  among  all  the  steel 
workers  is  low.  Comfort  or  ordinary  provisions  for 
decency  are  almost  entirely  lacking  in  nearly  every  steel- 


go  MEN  AND  THINGS 

producing  district.  The  housing  conditions  are  con- 
gested, the  children  play  in  the  streets,  and  only  the 
cheapest  and  most  dangerous  forms  of  recreation  are 
open  to  the  young  people.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
workers  are  members  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
The  men,  however,  for  the  most  part  have  no  use  for 
the  cliurch  and  rarely  if  ever  attend.  The  women  cling 
to  it,  since  they  are  naturally  more  devout. 

The  children  suffer  from  the  hard  circumstances  in 
the  laboring  communities.  The  mothers  have  generally 
gone  to  work  too  early  in  life  to  give  proper  vitality  to 
the  child.  The  lack  of  conditions  that  make  for  decent 
home  life  brought  about  through  inadequate  incomes  of 
the  fathers  and  the  overcrowded  housing  conditions  taxes 
life  heavily  by  infant  niortality,  and  mortgages  the  future 
health  and  morals  of  the  children,  thus  threatening  the 
future  efficiency  of  the  state.  Investigations  conducted 
by  the  Children's  Bureau  in  Washington  show  that  the 
chances  of  life  for  a  baby  grow  appallingly  small  as 
the  father's  earnings  grow  less.  For  instance,  the  cases 
of  one  thousand  babies  in  eight  representative  cities 
were  studied.  The  returns  show  that  in  families  where 
the  father  earns  less  than  $550  a  year  every  sixth  baby 
dies ;  while  in  families  where  the  father's  income  is 
$1,050  or  more  a  year  only  one  baby  in  sixteen  dies.^ 

The  Church  and  the  Homes  of  the  Workers.  The 
disorganizing  influence  on  the  social  and  industrial  life 
incident  to  the  war  accentuates  the  importance  of  pro- 
tecting mothers  and  children.  The  churches  have  a  re- 
markable opportunity  here,  for  it  is  to  the  homes  that 

'  .See  "  Infant  Mortality,"  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the  Children's 
Bureau,  U.  S.  Department  of  Labor,  Washington,  D.  C. 


■"    o 


^    o 


^ 

rt 

^ 

E 

_ 

< 

(U 

o 

; 

THE  STEEL  WORKERS  gi 

the  churcK  makes  its  first  and  strongest  appeal.  Jesus 
set  a  little  child  at  the  very  center  of  his  system  for  re- 
generating humanity  and  saving  the  world. 

The  church  must  produce  and  train  skilled  leaders  who 
can  direct  affairs;  it  must  set  in  motion  forces  that  will 
counteract  the  evil  in  these  industrial  communities;  and 
must  help  to  create  public  sentiment  so  that  the  city  that 
allows  bad  housing  to  exist  and  the  industry  that  forces 
it  will  be  looked  upon  as  murderers  of  little  children. 
Playgrounds,  recreation  centers,  and  the  strict  enforce- 
ment of  all  the  laws  that  protect  the  home  must  be  urged 
upon  the  church  as  a  part  of  its  program.  Without 
these  the  gospel  fails. 

The  Church  and  the  Workers.  Another  feature  in- 
cident to  the  life  in  the  steel-mills  is  the  apathy  that 
develops  in  the  workers  themselves.  Their  attitude 
toward  life  is  characterized  by  a  dumb,  brutish  fatalism. 
The  editor  of  a  paper  in  one  of  the  steel  cities  when 
discussing  this  attitude  of  mind  remarked :  "  A  Fin- 
lander  cares  less  about  being  killed  in  the  mill  than  I 
do  about  having  my  tooth  pulled."  It  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  enforce  the  necessary  precautions.  Life  becomes 
of  little  value  to  the  worker  pressed  as  he  is  for  produc- 
tion. This  thing  called  steel  looms  big  and  human ; 
life  looks  small  in  proportion.  Jesus,  appealing  to  the 
rural-minded  people  of  his  day,  said  that  man  is  more 
precious  than  a  sheep.  The  church  in  our  great  steel 
centers  must  often  and  persistently  preach  the  gospel 
from  this  text  which  interpreted  in  modern  times  will 
be,  "  Man  is  more  precious  than  a  bar  of  steel." 

Progress  Toward  Justice.  The  process  of  adjust- 
ment between  manufacturing,  the  cost  of  labor,  and  the 


92  MEN  AND  THINGS 

selling  price  of  the  material  is  a  difficult  one.  Labor  con- 
ditions have  been  such,  and  competition  so  keen,  that  it 
has  been  very  difficult  to  safeguard  the  men  employed  in 
this  industry.  Union  labor  has  had  a  hard  time  to  estab- 
lish itself.  Nearly  all  of  the  mills  and  factories  are 
run  as  open  shops.  Of  late  years,  however,  it  has  been 
found  that  there  must  be  closer  cooperation  between 
the  management,  the  owners,  and  the  workers;  and  cer- 
tain concessions  have  been  made  and  new  elements  have 
been  introduced  into  the  system  which  are  bettering  con- 
ditions. It  is  now  possible  for  the  workers  to  have 
shares  of  the  common  stock  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation.  The  workers  are  suspicious  of  this  scheme 
as  well  as  of  all  other  forms  of  profit-sharing  and  wel- 
fare work  because  they  believe  that  it  leads  to  a  deepen- 
ing of  the  dependence  of  the  worker  upon  the  concern 
for  which  he  works,  and  thus  hinders  the  coming  of  in- 
dustrial democracy.  It  must  be  said,  however,  for  a 
plan  which  makes  it  possible  for  the  employees  to  buy 
stock  in  the  concern,  that  it  is  a  step  toward  democracy 
if  it  is  democractically  carried  out.  The  difficulty  at 
present  is  that  only  the  better  paid,  higher  class  of 
laborers  in  the  steel-mills  can  or  will  take  the  stock. 
Until  the  wages  of  all  the  laborers  are  increased  to  the 
place  where  each  one  can  have  a  decent  home  located 
in  a  desirable  part  of  the  city,  and  a  degree  of  leisure  so 
that  he  can  give  some  time  and  attention  to  other  things 
than  the  mere  process  of  making  steel,  the  distributing 
of  stock  will  not  go  far  toward  settling  the  labor  diffi- 
culties that  so  often  embarrass  the  great  steel  companies. 
A  Successful  Experiment.  Democracy  means  that 
each  worker  shall  have  a  voice  and  a  vote  in  determining 


THE  STEEL  WORKERS  93 

the  conditions  under  which  he  works  as  well  as  some 
share  in  the  ownership  of  the  business.  The  only  answer 
to  the  argument  against  democracy  is  a  successful  ex- 
periment in  democracy.  A  manufacturing  plant  in  a 
democratic  country  must  recognize  in  these  days  that 
the  only  scheme  that  will  succeed  must  make  for  a 
larger  control  of  the  business  by  a  larger  number  of 
the  people  employed.  The  Baker  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, of  Evansville,  Wisconsin,  has  carried  out  a  stock- 
owning,  profit-sharing  plan  with  great  success.  Since 
1899  the  lowest  additional  wage  paid  to  the  employees 
has  been  60  per  cent  and  the  highest  120  per  cent, 
based  on  average  wages.  Every  employee  has  a  vote  in 
the  company,  and  the  annual  meetings  are  held  in  the 
town  hall.  The  stock  issued  each  year  represents  real 
value,  for  every  dollar  of  it  is  put  into  material  improve- 
ments in  the  shop  and  its  equipment.  I  visited  Mr. 
Baker  some  years  ago  and  he  told  me  of  the  success 
of  his  plans.  Just  before  I  left  I  said:  "  Mr.  Baker,  do 
you  think  that  you  have  been  wise  in  putting  so  much 
efifort  into  the  creation  of  this  new  form  of  industrial 
organization?"  He  replied:  "Well,  I  am  past  seventy 
years  of  age  and  have  all  the  money  I  can  use  con- 
veniently. I  enjoy  life  and  have  the  friendship  of  my 
workmen.  I  do  not  need  to  station  detectives  about 
my  home  to  protect  me  while  I  am  asleep;  and  another 
thing,  we  never  have  had  a  strike  in  this  town.  We  are 
all  friends  and  fellow  workers."  Surely  these  are  the 
things  that  accumulations  of  money  cannot  produce  and 
their  possession  is  beyond  value.  What  has  been  done 
in  this  factory  connected  with  the  steel  trade  ought  to 
be  possible  everywhere. 


94  MEN  AND  THINGS 

The  Church  and  Its  Approach.  The  scheme  of  ad- 
justment is  a  difficult  one,  and  the  cliurch  is  not  meet- 
ing the  situation  in  any  adequate  way.  Its  task  is  before 
it  and  must  be  attacked  with  persistence,  with  skill,  and 
with  patience.  This  means,  first  of  all,  that  the  church 
in  the  communities  where  the  steel  workers  live  must 
find  a  method  of  approach  through  the  home  and  the 
school  to  the  heart  and  the  life  of  the  people.  Until  this 
is  done,  it  will  be  futile  for  the  church  to  even  attempt 
to  minister  to  the  people  in  the  deeper  things  of  life. 


CHAPTER  VII 
The  World  of  the  Transportation  Men 

"  Here,  boss,  jes'  take  fo'  dollars'  worth  of  ride  out  of 
this  here  bill."  This  ;vas  the  response  of  an  old  Negro 
riding  on  a  Southern  train  when  asked  for  his  ticket  by 
the  conductor.  Without  a  word  the  conductor  gave  him 
the  change  from  a  ten  dollar  bill  and  a  ticket  to  tuck 
into  his  hat  and  which  allowed  him  to  ride  to  a  town 
approximately  two  hundred  miles  distant.  When  the 
train  reached  its  destination  the  old  Negro  began  to 
fumble  in  his  pockets  and  then  he  picked  up  his  bundles 
and  slowly  got  off.  Three  hours  later,  as  a  train  coming 
in  the  opposite  direction  stopped  at  the  station,  the  same 
Negro  got  aboard,  paid  his  fare  back  to  the  starting- 
point  and  arrived  early  in  the  morning.  Going  up  the 
street  he  met  the  judge  of  the  district,  who  said  to  him, 
"  Hello,  John,  what  are  you  doing  out  so  early  ?  Where 
have  you  been?  "  "  I  ain't  been  nowhere.  Judge;  I  jes' 
been  doing  a  little  traveling."  This  is  not  an  isolated 
case  by  any  means.  I  told  this  story  as  I  had  heard  it 
to  a  conductor  on  another  road  and  he  said  it  was  a 
very  common  thing  to  have  fifteen  or  twenty  white 
people  as  well  as  Negroes  "  ride  out "  the  mileage  cov- 
ered by  a  five  dollar  bill. 

The  American  is  the  most  restless  person  in  the  world. 
We  are  always  on  the  move  and  a  large  amount  of  our 

95 


96  MEN  AND  THINGS 

traveling  is  purposeless.  We  simply  travel  because  we 
like  to  be  going  somewhere.  This  trait  in  us  is  a  sur- 
vival from  a  long  past  age  in  man's  development.  This 
primitive  love  of  change  is  strengthened  by  the  economic 
pressure  under  which  most  of  us  live.  Early  man  wan- 
dered from  place  to  place  in  search  of  his  food.  Modern 
man  does  the  same,  the  only  difference  being  that  he  does 
not  now  look  for  his  food  ready  to  his  hand,  but  looks 
for  a  place  to  work,  so  that  he  can  earn  money  Vv^ith 
which  to  buy  his  food.  "  We  have  been  married  twelve 
years,"  said  a  vivacious  little  lady,  "  and  I  have  lived  in 
six  states.  It  seems  that  my  husband  is  always  getting 
a  chance  to  better  our  condition,  and  we  both  have  come 
to  look  forward  to  a  move  about  every  two  years.  If  we 
just  live  long  enough,  we  will  have  lived  in  every  state 
in  the  Union." 

But  transportation  as  we  understand  it  to-day  refers 
to  the  moving  of  freight,  express,  and  mail,  as  well  as 
to  the  moving  of  men  and  women.  Man  himself  was 
the  original  burden-bearer  and  became  the  first  trans- 
portation system,  carrying  combined  freight  and  express. 
He  simply  took  his  bundle  on  his  shoulders  and  used 
his  legs  as  the  means  of  moving  from  one  place  to 
another.  Then  he  used  other  men  to  help  carry  his  loads. 
There  has  been  much  speculation  as  to  how  the  stones 
used  in  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramids  were  brought 
to  the  desert  and  put  into  place.  Many  theories  have 
been  advanced.  One  of  the  latest  is  that  the  Pyramids 
are  made  of  concrete  and  that  they  were  poured  rather 
than  quarried.  However  the  material  was  secured,  or  in 
whatever  way  the  work  was  accomplished,  we  can  be 
sure  of  one  thing  and  that  is  that  all  of  the  material 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  MEN  97 

was  carried  by  men.  They  were  the  slaves  of  Pharaoh 
and  this  was  the  usual  form  of  the  transportation  system 
of  Egypt.  There  were  auxiliary  lines  which  employed 
camels,  asses,  and  some  horses ;  but  the  slave  was  the 
principal  carrier  just  as  he  is  in  Africa  to-day.  The 
rivers  and  the  oceans  were  used  as  highways  of  travel, 
but  the  boats  were  very  crude  affairs  and  the  slaves 
chained  to  the  seats  and  pulling  on  heavy  oars  formed 
the  motive  power.  The  oars  were  made  in  graduated 
lengths,  one  bank  above  another.  The  three-tiered 
Roman  boat  was  known  as  the  trireme  and  it  was  the 
great-grandfather  of  the  ocean  liners  with  their  triple 
screws.  It  is  a  long  development  from  the  primitive 
methods  of  travel  and  burden-bearing  in  the  early  days  of 
Egypt  to  the  great  transcontinental  railway  lines  and  the 
ocean  steamships  of  our  day ! 

Progress  and  Transportation.  The  word  progress 
carries  within  it  the  implication  that  there  is  a  road  over 
which  the  race  of  men  is  passing.  The  roadmaker  has 
always  been  the  pioneer  of  civilization.  The  advent  of 
steam  and  the  perfecting  of  railroads  marks  a  period  of 
development  throughout  civilization  itself.  Some  one 
has  said  that  it  would  be  far  more  interesting  and  in- 
forming concerning  the  facts  that  will  transpire  in  the 
next  one  hundred  years,  if  we  could  see  the  railroad 
map  showing  all  the  transportation  lines  in  the  different 
continents  to  be  published  in  the  year  2018,  than  if  we 
could  have  a  map  that  would  simply  show  the  national 
boundaries.  A  nation  may  be  compared  to  a  human 
body.  The  railroad  lines  are  the  arteries  along  which 
flows  the  life-blood  of  the  nation.  Industry  is  the  center 
of  a  nation's  life,  and  it  pumps  commerce  over  the  rails 


98  MEN  AND  THINGS 

and  thus  keeps  the  body  growing  and  in  a  healthful 
state. 

Age  of  the  Engineer.  The  great  world  war  has  been 
characterized  in  many  ways,  but  perhaps  the  best  char- 
acterization of  all  is  that  it  is  an  engineers'  war.  Elimi- 
nate the  work  of  the  engineers,  civil  and  mechanical, 
from  this  war  and  it  could  not  have  been  fought.  For 
that  matter  the  last  seventy-five  years  of  the  world's 
history  has  belonged  to  the  engineers.  Ninety  per  cent, 
of  all  our  comforts,  conveniences,  and  practical  achieve- 
ments is  due  to  their  work,  and  what  wonders  have 
been  wrought  in  this  time !  The  engineer  has  accom- 
plished more  in  the  field  of  transportation  than  in  any 
other  realm.  Transportation,  represented  by  the  rail- 
roads, the  steamships,  the  automobiles,  and  the  better 
roads  that  have  been  built  to  accommodate  them,  makes 
up  the  chief  differences  between  our  age  and  all  those 
ages  preceding. 

The  Railway  Systems.  There  is  being  operated  in 
the  United  States  at  the  present  time  230,000  miles  of 
railroads.  The  mileage  which  they  cover  if  stretched 
about  the  earth  would  belt  the  globe  nine  times.  The 
total  mileage  for  the  whole  world  is  about  700,000;  all 
of  Europe  has  215,140  miles.  The  United  States  and 
Canada  together  have  almost  half  the  total  mileage  of 
the  world  and  as  much  as  all  of  Europe  and  Asia  com- 
bined. In  191 5  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  car- 
ried 976,303,602  passengers  and  moved  1,802,018,177 
tons  of  freight.  The  railway  companies  employed  1,654,- 
075  men  and  women.  The  average  hourly  pay  for  these 
workers,  figured  on  the  basis  of  the  eight-hour  day,  is 
twenty-six  cents.     Railroading  is  a  most   difficult  and 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  MEN  99 

dangerous  occupation,  and  yet  there  is  something  in  the 
work  itself  that  appeals  to  the  worker.  "  Once  a  rail- 
road man,  always  a  railroad  man,"  as  one  brakeman 
put  it. 

There  was  a  railroad  wreck  on  the  Southern  Pacific 
line  just  south  of  Livermore,  California,  some  years 
ago.  The  engine  fell  over  into  a  creek  and  the  engineer 
was  caught  underneath,  and  pressed  down  into  the  soft 
sand.  It  was  eighteen  hours  before  he  was  rescued ; 
his  chest  was  crushed  and  he  was  horribly  burned  but 
by  some  miracle  he  lived.  The  railway  company  gave 
him  a  pension  in  recognition  of  his  faithful  services  of 
about  twelve  years,  and  he  was  able  to  live  on  the  in- 
come without  working.  This  invalided  engineer  was 
idle  for  almost  ten  months ;  he  then  went  back  to  the 
company  and  asked  to  be  put  on  an  engine  again.  He 
was  not  considered  strong  enough  to  run  a  passenger 
engine,  but  was  supremely  happy  when  put  in  charge 
of  a  switch  engine  in  the  train-yards  of  Sacramento. 
He  said,  "  It  was  the  happiest  day  of  my  life  when  I 
pulled  the  throttle,  and  again  felt  the  engine  begin  to 
move  out  under  my  touch  and  control." 

Casualty  Lists.  In  the  year  1916,  the  steam  railways 
of  the  United  States  injured  196,722  people  and  killed 
10,001.  The  electric  railways  for  the  same  period  in- 
jured 4,606  and  killed  518.  Of  these  persons,  4,928  were 
killed  while  riding  as  passengers,  or  while  at  work  in  the 
performance  of  their  tasks.  The  remainder  were  killed 
while  walking  upon  the  railway  tracks  or  in  other  ways 
trespassing. 

One  bitter  cold  day  a  Lackawanna  train  from  New  York 
going  to  Buffalo  was  nearing  a  little  village  near  Bing- 


100  MEN  AND  THINGS 

humton  when  the  brakeman,  muffling  up  his  ears,  stepped 
out  on  the  rear  platform  to  be  ready  to  signal  as  the 
train  stopped  at  the  near-by  crossing.  The  train  stopped 
and  then  gave  four  blasts  on  the  whistle  calling  in  the 
brakeman.  There  was  a  delay  and  the  conductor  went 
back  to  find  out  why  the  brakeman  did  not  come,  but 
could  not  see  him  anywhere  down  the  line.  The  train 
was  late  and  running  badly,  so  instead  of  backing  up 
to  look  for  the  brakeman,  the  conductor  gave  orders  for 
the  train  to  go  ahead  and  reported  the  fact  at  the  next 
station.  Two  stations  beyond  word  reached  him  that 
the  body  of  the  brakeman  had  been  found  beside  the 
track.  He  had  stepped  out  on  the  rear  platform  just 
as  the  train  rounded  a  curve  and  the  platform  being 
slippery  he  lost  his  footing  and  was  thrown  oflf  and 
killed  instantly.  The  brakeman's  family  was  protected 
because  he  was  engaged  in  interstate  commerce,  but  one 
more  human  being  was  lost  in  the  performance  of  his 
daily  task.  The  inventions  such  as  patent  coupling  de- 
vices, block  signals,  and  the  vestibule  cars,  have  done 
away  with  a  great  many  accidents,  but  in  the  very  nature 
of  the  case,  there  will  always  be  danger  in  the  work  done 
by  the  men  who  operate  our  trains. 

The  Human  Factor.  The  railroads  of  the  country 
are  made  as  safe  as  possible  by  installing  wonderful  de- 
vices which  work  automatically.  The  tracks  are  in- 
spected, old  ties  replaced  by  new  ones ;  bolts  are  tested, 
yet  in  spite  of  all  the  excellent  devices  to  secure  safety, 
accidents  occur  in  sickening  succession.  An  entire  circus 
company  was  recently  wiped  out  by  an  accident  on  the 
Michigan  Central  Railroad.  The  members  of  the  circus 
were  nearly  all  asleep  when  a  train  from  the  rear  plunged 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  MEN  loi 

through  their  cars  killing  nearly  one  hundred  and  in- 
juring over  one  hundred  others.  The  wreckage  caught 
fire  and  many  of  the  bodies  were  cremated.  Reports 
would  indicate  that  this  accident  was  one  of  those  un- 
avoidable things  that  happen  so  often  in  railroading. 

Experiences  in  speaking  before  groups  of  railroad 
men  prove  that  the  question  of  danger  is  always  before 
the  minds  of  the  workers.  These  men  literally  carry 
their  lives  in  their  hands.  For  after  all,  no  matter  how 
perfectly  the  track  may  be  laid,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  signals  are  all  set,  there  is  always  the  human 
factor  to  be  taken  into  consideration.  The  flagman  may 
not  go  back  far  enough  from  the  train  that  is  stopped  so 
that  the  one  following  can  be  brought  to  a  halt  before 
crashing  into  the  train  ahead.  Another  thing  that  enters 
into  the  situation  is  the  fact  that  men  who  are  working 
surrounded  by  constant  perils  are  likely  to  become  care- 
less. "  I  carry  with  me  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
life  oi  every  man,  woman,  and  child  who  rides  on  my 
train."  This  was  the  statement  of  a  conscientious  rail- 
road engineer.  "  But,"  he  continued,  "  I  am  in  constant 
fear  that  my  train  will  be  wrecked  through  the  careless- 
ness of  somebody  else."  This  man  recognized  a  need 
that  is  essential  in  securing  safety  in  traveling  on  our 
railroads,  that  is,  a  sense  of  corporate  responsibility; 
by  this  we  mean,  that  the  entire  group  of  men,  all  the 
workers  and  all  of  those  who  are  responsible  for  the 
operation  of  the  roads  should  feel  the  same  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility that  the  individual  engineer  feels.  To  secure 
this  condition  the  railroad  companies  must  realize  that 
they  are  dealing  with  human  beings;  and  that  the  men 
who  furnish  the  human  element  in  the  railroad  equation 


102  MEN  AND  THINGS 

are  entitled  to  a  voice  and  a  share  in  the  management 
of  the  line. 

Wages  and  Hours  of  Work.  When  the  railroad  em- 
ployees threatened  to  strike  in  1917  and  asked  for  an 
eight-hour  day  and  an  increase  of  wages,  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  discussion  as  to  whether  the  companies  or 
the  men  were  in  the  right.  Most  people  sided  with  the 
companies  against  the  men,  because  there  is  an  idea 
among  the  people  that  the  railroad  men  are  the  best  paid 
employees  in  any  of  our  industries.  Contrary  to  the 
general  understanding,  the  railroad  employees  for  the 
most  part  are  not  well  paid.  The  government  has  recog- 
nized the  need  for  increased  wages  and  has  made  ad- 
vances to  nearly  all  classes  of  railway  employees  since 
federal  control  went  into  efTect.  The  average  rate  for  a 
normal  day's  work  for  engineers  in  the  freight  service 
throughout  the  eastern  territory  is  $4.85,  conductors  $4, 
brakemen  $2.67,  and  firemen  $3.25.  These  are  the  best 
paid  of  all  the  railroad  employees.  Tower  men,  who 
have  in  their  care  the  lives  of  millions  of  passengers  as 
they  protect  crossings,  receive  from  $40  to  $50  a  month. 
Telegraphers,  train  dispatchers,  track  inspectors,  and 
other  employees,  outside  of  the  four  great  brotherhoods, 
made  up  of  the  engineers,  conductors,  brakemen,  and 
firemen,  are  very  poorly  paid.  And  even  the  wages  for 
the  best  paid  and  most  skilful  operators,  the  brakeman 
and  the  fireman,  for  instance,  are  so  low  that  it  means 
that  in  order  to  earn  a  living  wage  they  must  make  a 
great  deal  through  overtime.. 

The  effect  of  this  low  wage  is  shown  in  the  number 
of  employees  who  are  changed  every  year.  In  the  first 
nine  months  of  191 7  in  the  eastern  territory  three  men 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  MEN  103 

were  employed  for  every  one  job  filled.  This  is  known 
as  the  turn-over  in  employment  and  it  is  unusually  high 
because  the  wages  are  below  standard,  the  hours  long, 
and  the  work  hard  and  dangerous.  There  is  a  continual 
change  in  the  operating  forces  and  a  consequent  lack  of 
efficiency.  Another  consideration  to  be  taken  into  account 
in  studying  the  wages  and  lives  of  railway  workers  is 
that  of  the  effect  of  the  work  upon  the  workers.  An 
engineer  must  put  in  years  as  a  fireman  before  he  can 
secure  the  right  to  run  an  engine,  and  then  a  dozen  or 
fifteen  years  is  about  the  length  of  time  that  he  can 
depend  on  keeping  his  job.  He  is  fortunate  indeed  if  he 
earns  a  good  wage  for  this  length  of  time.  The  wear 
and  tear  on  muscles,  nerves,  eyes,  ears,  kidneys,  and 
heart  is  almost  certain  to  break  down  the  strongest  body 
in  a  few  years.  Some  few  men  stand  the  strain  and 
hold  on  for  twenty  years  but  these  are  the  rare  ex- 
ceptions. 

Fictitious  Values  and  the  Railways.  The  railroad 
business  deals  in  a  commodity  that  may  be  termed  public 
service.  Almost  more  than  any  other  business  it  is  de- 
pendent for  success  upon  the  good-will  of  the  public. 
The  earnings  of  the  railroads  have  been  enormous  and 
even  if  their  operating  expenses  are  high,  there  have 
been  big  profits  made,  and  these  profits  have  been  taken 
up  to  a  large  extent  in  paying  dividends  upon  fictitious 
values.  This  is  the  most  serious  situation  that  threatens 
the  railroad  system  of  the  United  States.  For  instance, 
a  road  is  built  and  a  certain  amount  of  money  put  into 
the  equipment  and  rolling  stock,  such  as  engines,  coaches, 
and  freight-cars.  The  employees  are  hired  and  the  road 
begins  to  do  business  as  a  regular  passenger  and  freight 


104  MEN  AND  THINGS 

carrier.  Out  of  its  total  receipts  it  must  pay  a  fixed 
amount  for  up-keep,  for  new  equipment,  and  for  wages, 
besides  the  interest  on  the  money  it  has  borrowed.  The 
balance  that  is  left  from  the  amount  of  money  received 
by  the  road  and  the  amount  it  must  pay  out  marks  its 
own  profits.    This  is  given  to  the  owners  of  the  road. 

For  many  years  the  railroads  felt  that  they  needed 
special  legislation ;  and  money  was  spent  in  buying  up 
legislators,  in  corrupting  city  councils,  and  in  gaining 
the  influence  of  noted  men  who  would  agree  to  return 
certain  favors  to  the  road  for  certain  concessions  given. 
A  common  practise  in  connection  with  this  was  the  giv- 
ing of  free  passes  to  all  statesmen  and  newspaper  men. 
In  addition  to  this  the  railroad  property  became  valuable 
as  a  factor  in  the  stock  market,  and  new  stock  was 
continually  being  issued.  This  stock  would  be  sold  and 
in  many  cases  no  new  equipment  put  into  the  road,  so 
that  at  the  present  time  some  of  the  railroads  of  the 
United  States  have  three  or  four  times  as  much  stock  as 
they  have  actual  physical  value  for  their  stock. 

A  good  illustration  of  this  business  situation  would 
be  that  you  as  owner  of  a  house  worth  $4,000  should 
make  or  form  a  cooperative  housekeeping  company  and 
sell  shares  in  this  new  company,  basing  the  value  of  the 
total  amount  of  shares  upon  the  $4,000  that  the  house 
is  worth.  You  could  sell  forty  shares  each  for  $100. 
This  would  be  perfectly  legitimate  and  a  good  business 
transaction,  because  at  any  time  every  share  would  have 
back  of  it  one-fortieth  of  the  total  value  of  the  house. 
But  suppose  instead  of  selling  forty  shares,  you  should 
capitalize  your  house  at  $40,000  and  sell  400  shares  at 
$100  a  piece,  instead  of  the  forty  shares.     The  extra 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  MEN  105 

valuation  would  be  known  as  watered  stock,  because 
there  would  be  no  real  value  attached  to  it.  You  would 
be  selling  something  that  neither  you  nor  anybody  else 
possessed. 

It  is  said  that  the  term  watered  stock  came  from  the 
practise  of  one  of  the  early  financiers  who  brought  cattle 
from  the  West  to  sell  in  the  New  York  market  when 
New  York  was  a  very  small  city.  He  drove  the  cattle 
a  long  distance  on  the  last  day,  and  then  gave  them  salt 
the  night  before  arrival,  so  that  they  were  inordinately 
thirsty.  Just  before  they  were  sold  and  weighed  he 
would  let  them  drink  all  the  water  they  wanted,  so  that 
the  man  who  bought  them  was  paying  for  a  great  deal 
of  water  in  addition  to  the  actual  amount  of  beef  he 
received.  The  result  of  this  financial  device  known  as 
watered  stock  has  been  disastrous  for  many  of  our  rail- 
way companies,  and  the  plight  of  the  United  States  rail- 
roads has  been  a  scandal  for  years. 

Regulating  the  Railroads.  The  legislature  of  nearly 
every  state  has  tried  to  remedy  the  railway  situation. 
The  commissions  in  the  various  states  have  frequently 
found  themselves  in  each  other's  way.  The  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  appointed  by  the  United  States 
government  for  the  purpose  of  regulating  railroads  is  one 
of  the  most  efficient  bodies  in  the  entire  government  and 
has  rendered  remarkable  services.  The  citizens  of  the 
United  States  are  individualists  and  believe  strongly  in 
letting  each  business  adjust  its  own  difficulties  as  best 
it  can.  With  the  growth  of  the  world  commerce  with- 
out, and  the  development  of  the  country's  trade  within, 
however,  many  men  are  coming  to  believe  that  the  only 
way  out  of  difficulties  is  through  a  larger  degree  of  gov- 


io6  MEN  AND  THINGS 

ernment  control,  tending  finally  to  government  owner- 
ship of  all  the  means  of  transportation.  The  strongest 
argument  in  favor  of  government  ownership  is  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.  During 
the  last  ten  years  there  has  come  about  a  very  radical 
change  in  the  relations  existing  between  the  various  rail- 
ways and  the  general  public.  During  the  period  be- 
tween 1850  and  1900  the  railways  were  masters  of  the  sit- 
uation ;  and  the  financiers  who  built  and  operated  them 
were  despots,  more  or  less  benevolent  or  the  opposite 
according  to  their  personal  temperaments.  The  railway 
presidents  during  that  period  really  regarded  their  roads 
as  private  property  to  be  managed  as  they  saw  fit.  This 
theory  built  up  a  great  railroad  system  in  the  country, 
but  the  theory  is  not  big  enough  to  meet  the  new  national 
demands  that  are  put  upon  the  common  carriers  of  the 
day.  The  railroads  are  now  pleading  with  the  public  to 
recognize  them  as  public  institutions  primarily  interested 
in  serving  the  people. 

Railroads  and  Churches.  The  railroad  situation  is 
too  complicated  for  us  to  attempt  a  solution  of  it  in  a 
church  study  class.  It  will  demand  years  of  experimen- 
tation and  a  degree  of  personal  service  on  the  part  of 
the  best  and  ablest  men  of  our  nation.  What  the  church 
can  and  must  do  is  to  try  to  estimate  the  value  of  the 
principles  that  are  involved  in  the  railroad  development 
and  management.  This  can  be  done  by  following  the 
story  of  the  railroad  as  told  by  the  writers  in  the  public 
magazines  of  the  last  ten  years.  The  history  of  our 
railroad  legislation  is  also  available  for  us  in  the  records 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.  Each  study 
group  should  write  to  Washington  and  get  the  literature 


=    I 


=      c 


'^ 


z. 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  MEN  107 

issued  by  this  commission.  Much  of  it  will  be  found 
to  be  dry  reading,  being  largely  a  compilation  of  statistics ; 
and  these  statistics  dealing  in  figures  so  large  that  they 
mean  very  little  to  us.  The  recommendations,  however, 
and  the  conclusions  are  of  practical  value  and  will  be 
found  to  be  extremely  helpful  in  the  wise  and  just  con- 
clusion regarding  our  attitude  toward  the  railroad  as  a 
national  institution. 

Other  Means  of  Transportation.  The  work  of  the 
men  engaged  in  transportation  is  not  by  any  means  con- 
fined to  the  workers  on  the  railroads.  In  our  cities  there 
are  thousands  of  men  employed  on  the  street-cars,  elevated 
railroads,  and  subway  railways.  The  interurban  traction 
lines  employ  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men.  A  careful 
study  has  been  made  of  the  situation  affecting  these 
workers  by  the  Department  of  Labor  of  the  United 
States,  and  its  report  is  based  upon  facts  ascertained  from 
actual  conditions  found  in  all  the  principal  cities  of  the 
country.  Without  exception  the  street-car  men,  includ- 
ing conductors,  motormen,  linesmen,  and  ticket-sellers, 
are  poorly  paid.  Many  of  the  cities  are  paying  the  men 
much  less  than  a  living  wage.  What  do  you  know  about 
the  conditions  in  the  street-cars  in  your  own  city? 
Where  do  the  men  who  operate  these  cars  live?  What 
about  their  families  ?  A  motorman  on  one  of  the  elevated 
railway  lines  of  Chicago  shot  himself  a  few  years  ago. 
The  note  he  left  said :  "  I  have  four  children  and  it 
is  impossible  with  the  rising  cost  of  living  for  me  to 
maintain  my  home  on  $2.12  a  day.  I  have  a  Life  In- 
surance policy  for  $2,000  and  this  is  worth  more  to  my 
wife  and  children  than  I  earn  at  present."  The  street- 
car lines  in  most  of  our  cities  are  owned  and  controlled 


io8  MEN  AND  THINGS 

by  capitalists  living  in  some  other  city,  and  they  are 
operated,  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  city,  but  simply  for 
profits.  The  frequent  strikes  on  the  street-car  lines  are 
the  direct  result  of  this  foolish  policy  of  our  cities  of 
allowing  themselves  to  be  exploited  by  groups  of  business 
men  who  have  no  interest  in  the  city,  but  hold  toward 
it,  its  citizens,  and  its  own  workers,  the  attitude  of  a 
set  of  political  and  social  freebooters.  A  few  places  only 
have  attempted  municipal  ownership,  and  in  these  cases  it 
has  met  with  a  large  measure  of  success.  The  lines  owned 
and  operated  by  the  San  Francisco  municipality  have 
proved  so  successful  that  the  business  men  are  all  enthu- 
siastic over  the  policy. 

Another  group  that  aids  in  providing  transportation 
is  made  up  of  the  men  on  boats  on  the  lakes,  rivers,  and 
canals ;  those  who  come  to  our  shores  from  other  nations 
traveling  by  sea  in  foreign  boats;  the  sailors  on  our 
merchant  marine ;  and  the  thousands  of  workers  on  the 
docks  and  lighters  in  our  harbors.  In  connection  with 
this  great  work,  Andrew  Furuseth,  president  of  the  In- 
ternational Seamen's  Union,  stands  out  as  a  remarkable 
figure.  He  is  a  Scandinavian  by  birth,  and  worked  his 
way  up  from  the  simple  life  of  a  sailor  before  the  mast 
until  he  is  now  the  best  known  sailor  in  all  the  world. 
Mr.  Furuseth  has  a  great  heart,  and  has  fought  long 
and  hard  for  his  fellow  workers ;  he  might  be  rich  to-day, 
but  as  head  of  the  union  he  accepts  only  the  pay  of  a 
first-class  seaman  and  is  literally  giving  his  life  for 
others.  At  a  meeting  of  the  City  Club  in  Rochester 
which  he  addressed  some  years  ago,  one  of  the  gentle- 
men present  turned  to  his  companion  and  said:  "Just 
look  at  Furuseth.     In  ever}'  line  of  his   face  there  is 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  MEN  109 

written  a  chapter  of  the  tragedy  and  pathos  of  the  men 
who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships." 

The  sailor  has  been  practically  a  prisoner  always. 
When  he  signed  his  work  papers  he  put  himself  under 
the  control  of  an  absolute  autocrat.  Until  recently  the 
master  of  a  ship  at  sea  recognized  no  authority  greater 
than  himself,  and  when  the  boat  landed  at  any  port,  no 
matter  what  the  treatment  might  have  been,  the  seaman 
could  not  desert,  otherwise  he  would  be  arrested  and 
imprisoned.  Furuseth  protested  against  this  inhuman 
treatment,  and  through  a  long  period  of  years  kept  de- 
manding that  seamen,  "  the  last  slaves "  as  he  called 
them,  be  made  free.  Finally  his  efforts  were  successful 
and  on  March,  1915,  there  was  approved  by  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  an  Act  which  promotes  the 
welfare  of  the  American  seaman  in  the  merchant  marine. 
It  abolishes  arrest  and  imprisonment  for  desertion,  and  it 
secured  the  abrogation  of  treaty  provisions  between  the 
different  nations  which  guaranteed  that  American  sailors 
would  be  treated  as  felons  if  they  deserted  in  a  foreign 
port.  It  also  provided  additional  safety  at  sea  for  all 
persons  upon  a  boat ;  one  of  its  provisions  being  that 
there  shall  be  carried  on  every  passenger-carrying 
steamer  or  sailing  vessel  enough  life-boats  so  that  each 
passenger  and  each  man  of  the  crew  will  have  a  seat  and 
a  chance  for  escape  in  case  of  an  accident.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that  this  Act  was  passed  as  a  direct 
result  of  the  sinking  of  the  Titanic. 

The  World  of  the  Transportation  Men.  The  trans- 
portation men  live  in  a  world  apart.  How  many  sailors 
do  you  know?  How  many  street-car  men?  How  many 
railroaders?     Have  you  ever  wondered  where  the  con- 


no  MEN  AND  THINGS 

ductor  on  the  street-car  upon  which  you  ride  so  often 
lives?  "  Yes,  we  have  a  little  church,  but  it  is  over  across 
the  tracks  where  the  railroad  men  live,  and  I  always 
attend  the  Presbyterian  Church  here."  This  was  the 
excuse  given  by  a  gentleman  for  not  attending  the  church 
of  the  denomination  to  which  he  had  belonged  before  he 
moved  into  a  new  community  near  Chicago.  We  do 
not  want  a  church  to  be  known  as  the  Railroad  Men's 
Church  or  the  Sailors'  Church  or  the  Street-Car  Work- 
ers' Church.  This  is  not  the  way  to  be  the  best  kind  of 
a  neighbor.  What  we  do  want  is  for  the  church  every- 
where to  take  an  interest  in  these  men  who  are  providing 
for  our  transportation  and  also  carrying  the  necessities 
of  life  for  all  the  world.  We  come  into  personal  rela- 
tionships with  many  of  them  in  a  business  way,  and  they 
all  do  much  to  add  to  our  wealth,  our  happiness,  and  our 
comfort.  We  in  turn  as  individuals  and  as  members  of 
the  church  should  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  conditions 
surrounding  them. 

For  instance,  in  the  waters  of  the  New  York  har- 
bor, living  upon  the  canal-boats  which  move  in  and  out 
carrying  coal,  hay,  and  other  rough  freight,  are  the 
families  of  the  workers,  and  in  these  families  there  are 
approximately  5,000  children.  They  are  at  one  place  to- 
day and  another  place  to-morrow.  These  people  have 
no  citizenship  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word.  Many  of 
the  men  do  not  vote  because  they  live  in  no  locality  long 
enough  to  register.  The  questions  of  schooling,  of 
church  privileges,  and  of  all  social  contact  are  serious 
ones.  Yet  how  many  people  in  New  York  City,  or  for 
that  matter  in  any  of  the  smaller  towns  and  villages 
where  these  boats  land,  have  ever  once  thought  of  the 


THE  TRANSPORTATION  MEN  in 

status  and  social  conditions  of  these  men,  and  women, 
and  their  children  ?  Things  we  know.  The  things  which 
the  boats  and  the  railroads  carry  and  that  other  thing  that 
looms  so  large,  the  profits  that  are  made  from  trans- 
portation, are  regarded  as  very  important;  but  we  have 
paid  scant  attention  to  the  men  who  produce  things'  and 
carry  them  from  place  to  place. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  World  of  the  Makers  of  Luxuries 

"  I  would  not  like  to  work  in  a  candy  store,"  said  a 
young  lad,  "  because  then  I  could  not  have  the  fun  of 
buying  candy."  A  visitor  to  Atlantic  City  stepped  into 
one  of  the  shops  to  make  a  purchase.  She  said  to  the 
little  girl  in  charge,  "  It  must  be  delightful  to  be  able 
to  live  in  Atlantic  City  and  work  right  here  on  the  board- 
walk." "  You  may  think  so,"  replied  the  girl.  "  But  I 
guess  if  you  put  in  all  your  time  in  this  store,  and  had 
to  come  to  work  at  eight  in  the  morning  and  work  until 
nine  at  night  every  day ;  and  all  the  time  saw  these 
thousands  of  people  passing  along  outside,  going  up  and 
down,  with  nothing  to  do  but  just  enjoy  themselves,  you 
would  not  think  it  is  such  a  snap."  Two  boys  were 
playing  the  game  of  "  wish."  When  the  turn  of  the 
youngest  came,  he  said,  "  I  wish  that  I  worked  in  a 
chocolate  factory,  then  I  could  have  all  the  chocolate 
I  wanted  to  eat."  When  we  become  acquainted  with  the 
people  who  are  at  work  producing  the  luxuries,  we  find 
a  common  and  far-reaching  disillusionment.  The  hard- 
est work  in  the  world  is  to  work  when  other  people  are 
playing,  or  work  hard  ourselves  just  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  other  people  enjoyment.  And  yet  there  are 
literally  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  who  spend 
their  lives  in  producing  luxuries. 

J 13 


114  MEN  AND  THINGS 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  used  to  say  that  if  he  could 
just  have  the  luxuries,  he  would  not  care  anything  about 
the  necessities  of  life.  This  was  a  whimsical  way  of 
stating  a  fact  that  is  common  to  all  experience,  that  is, 
that  life  is  enriched  by  the  luxuries  we  enjoy.  I  asked 
a  man  of  the  typographical  union  what  he  considered  the 
one  thing  that  had  done  most  for  the  advancement  of 
printers.  He  replied,  "  Pianos  in  their  parlors."  By 
this  he  meant  that  when  hours  were  decreased  and  wages 
increased,  printers  began  to  have  something  to  hope  for; 
and  with  a  margin  of  money  they  bought  luxuries,  and 
in  the  margin  of  time  enjoyed  them.  Thus  they  laid  the 
foundation  for  future  development. 

Luxuries.  What  constitutes  a  luxury  ?  This  is  a  diffi- 
cult question  to  answer.  Some  people  think  that  it  is 
a  luxury  to  take  a  bath.  In  fact,  many  of  the  monastic 
orders  put  special  virtue  on  foregoing  the  use  of  soap 
and  water.  An  old  gentleman  living  in  a  little  town 
near  Chicago  who  owned  a  great  deal  of  the  property  in 
the  town,  fought  every  effort  to  put  in  water-works  and 
a  sewer  system.  As  the  climax  of  an  impassioned  speech 
at  a  public  meeting  in  which  he  had  denounced  the 
extravagances  of  the  present  time,  he  said :  "  These  new 
notions  of  our  young  people  are  going  to  ruin  us.  My 
daughter  made  such  a  fuss  that  nine  years  ago  I  put  a 
bathtub  in  our  house,  but  I  never  use  it  and  I  guess  I 
am  about  as  healthy  as  any  man  in  town."  One  of  the 
religious  sects  forbids  its  members  the  use  of  buttons  on 
their  clothes,  as  they  are  regarded  as  useless  luxuries. 
They  fasten  their  clothes  together  with  hooks  and  eyes. 
Cutting  the  hair,  shaving  the  beard,  wearing  gold  and 
silver,  adorning  the  person  in  any  way,  all  of  these  things 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  ng 

are  considered  luxuries  by  some  persons.  Luxury  is 
really  a  thing  that  we  can  get  along  without.  But  at  best 
it  is  a  relative  term,  for  what  one  person  would  con- 
sider a  luxury  another  would  consider  a  necessity. 

Growth  by  Wants,  Not  Needs.  A  merchant  in  Mem- 
phis had  a  carload  of  supplies  arrive  early  one  Satur- 
day morning.  He  was  very  anxious  to  get  the  goods  un- 
loaded so  that  he  could  release  the  car.  He  started  out 
to  get  help,  but  every  Negro  on  the  street  had  some 
good  excuse  why  he  could  not  help.  Meeting  an  old 
fellow  on  the  corner  he  said  to  him,  "  Look  here,  Bob, 
what  is  the  trouble  with  all  these  Negroes?  Not  one  of 
them  wants  to  work  and  yet  they  all  seem  to  have  plenty 
of  time  and  nothing  to  do."  "  It's  just  like  this,  Boss," 
replied  old  Bob.  "  All  the  worth-while  niggers  is  out 
working,  'cause  you  see  they's  got  to  support  their  Fords. 
These  here  fellers  ain't  no  good ;  don't  want  cyars  and 
won't  work  nohow  when  the  sun  shines  on  both  sides  of 
the  street  at  de  same  time."  In  this  statement  we  have 
summed  up  the  philosophy  of  all  workers.  It  is  only 
when  we  desire  something  better  than  we  have  and  are 
willing  to  work  for  the  thing  desired  that  we  begin  to 
advance.  Luxuries  are  the  things  that  are  not  essential 
for  mere  existence,  but  they  are  the  things  that  are  of 
infinite  value  in  enriching  and  adding  to  the  meaning 
of  life. 

Classes  of  Luxuries.  Luxuries  can  be  roughly  divided 
into  two  classes,  those  that  are  harmless  and  those  that 
are  hurtful.  The  extra  dress,  the  piece  of  cake,  the 
sugar  in  our  coffee,  the  coffee  itself,  and  in  fact  a  great 
many  of  the  things  we  wear,  eat,  and  drink  are  luxuries. 
The  line  between  these  things  and  necessities  is  such  a 


Ti6  MEN  AND  THINGS 

thin  one  that  it  is  hard  to  know  just  when  a  thing  ceases 
to  be  a  necessity  and  becomes  a  luxury.  Most  things 
are  harmless  in  and  of  themselves,  and  it  must  be  ac- 
knowledged, luxuries  have  the  effect  of  increasing  the 
value  and  meaning  of  life.  There  are,  however,  luxuries 
such  as  beer,  wine,  whisky,  brandy,  and  other  alcoholic 
stimulants  used  as  beverages,  also  tobacco  used  as  snuflf, 
for  chewing  or  for  smoking,  which  add  nothing  to  life; 
but  on  the  contrary  must  be  classed  with  the  habit-form- 
ing drugs  so  injurious  to  the  race.  In  this  chapter  we 
are  considering  luxuries  from  the  standpoint  of  produc- 
tion, and  not  the  moral  value  involved  in  their  use. 
Therefore,  we  must  think  of  the  workers  in  the  brewery, 
the  cigar  and  cigaret  makers,  the  makers  of  artificial 
flowers  and  willow  plumes  as  all  belonging  to  the  same 
class.  They  are  the  ones  who  are  making  the  things  that 
are  not  absolutely  necessary  for  our  existence.  Were 
the  production  of  bread  to  stop  we  could  not  live.  Iron, 
steel,  coal,  and  transportation  are  all  part  and  parcel  of 
our  very  existence,  but  we  could  get  along  very  well  if 
not  another  artificial  flower,  cigar,  or  fancy  dress  were 
made. 

The  Cigarmakers.  The  cigarmakers  living  in  Tampa 
and  Key  West  form  the  most  complete  compact  group  of 
workers  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  United  States  who 
are  interested  solely  in  producing  luxuries.  Tampa  is 
known  as  ''  The  city  that  furnishes  the  world's  smoke." 
Last  year  this  city  shipped  (in  round  numbers)  300,000,- 
000  cigars !  Havana  and  Key  W^est  have  always  been 
considered  the  principal  cigar  cities,  but  the  production  in 
these  latter  places  has  been  declining  for  a  number  of 
years,  while  it  has  been  increasing  in  Tampa.    It  was  a 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  117 

clash  between  the  Cuban  and  Spanish  workers  at  Key 
West  which  led  the  first  manufacturer  to  move  from 
that  city  and  build  his  factory  at  Tampa.  To-day  there 
are  15,000  Cuban  and  Spanish  workers  employed  in 
Tampa  in  making  cigars.  A  person  could  live  in  the  city, 
and  by  restricting  his  business  to  certain  districts,  from 
one  year's  beginning  to  the  end  would  never  hear  a  word 
spoken  in  any  language  except  Spanish.  The  city  is  a 
foreign  city,  and  a  city  of  workers  producing  a  lux- 
ury that  all  the  world  demands.  Since  the  time  that 
Columbus  sent  his  men  to  explore  the  island  of  Cuba 
in  November,  1492,  and  found  the  natives  "  carrying 
and  smoking  firebrands  "  made  from  loosely  rolled  leaves 
of  a  weed  which  grew  extensively  on  the  island,  until 
the  present  time  men  everywhere  have  found  enjoyment 
and  pleasure  in  the  narcotic  value  of  tobacco. 

The  Making  of  a  Cigar.  In  its  manufacture  a  cigar 
goes  through  a  process  dependent  upon  the  knowledge 
and  skill  gained  from  years  of  practise  on  the  part  of 
the  worker.  The  tobacco  that  is  used  in  making  the 
best  cigars  still  comes  from  the  island  of  Cuba.  It  is 
grown  very  carefully,  cured,  baled,  and  shipped  under 
bond  to  the  United  States  government.  The  bales  as 
they  are  received  at  the  tobacco  factory  weigh  from  80 
to  120  pounds.  The  tobacco  is  of  two  qualities,  that  to 
be  used  as  a  filler  (which  makes  up  the  body  of  the 
cigar),  and  that  which  is  known  as  the  wrapper  or  the 
outside  covering.  From  the  time  that  the  tobacco  begins 
to  grow  until  the  cigars  are  packed  in  the  boxes  ready 
for  shipment  the  weed  requires  special  care  and  atten- 
tion. As  the  bales  of  tobacco  are  brought  into  the  fac- 
tory they  have  to  be  piled  in  a  certain  way.     Some  of 


ii8  MEN  AND  THINGS 

them  are  piled  high,  some  of  them  low,  some  on  their 
sides,  and  some  on  their  ends ;  all  depending  upon  the 
quality  and  conditions  of  the  leaves. 

The  tobacco  is  cured  by  a  process  which  adds  to  its 
value ;  and  the  curing  must  be  carried  on  with  precision, 
for  a  faulty  method  will  spoil  the  best  tobacco  that  can 
be  grown.  Any  one  who  has  visited  Tampa  is  impressed 
with  the  humidity  of  the  atmosphere.  The  climate  of 
Cuba  is  more  nearly  reproduced  there  than  in  any  other 
city  in  America,  and  because  of  its  equable  temperature, 
it  being  neither  too  hot  nor  too  cold,  the  city  has  become 
famous  as  the  manufacturing  center  for  cigars. 

The  cigarmakers  sit  at  long  tables  in  parallel  rows 
throughout  the  room.  In  one  room  in  a  large  factory 
eight  hundred  workers  sit  as  close  together  as  possible. 
The  tools  of  the  trade  are  a  flat,  broad-bladed  knife,  a 
hard  block,  a  gage,  and  a  rule.  This  gage  is  simply  a 
hole  bored  through  a  piece  of  board  and  as  the  worker 
makes  up  the  cigar,  from  time  to  time  he  puts  it 
through  the  hole  in  the  board  to  see  that  it  is  the 
proper  size  and  places  it  against  the  rule  to  see  that 
it  is  the  proper  length.  Should  it  be  too  large  it  must 
be  rolled  tighter,  if  too  small  it  must  be  loosened  up  a 
bit.  Much  depends  upon  the  way  a  cigar  is  rolled.  "  I 
learned  to  make  a  cigar  in  three  months,"  said  a  Cuban 
cigarmaker,  "  but  it  took  me  two  years  to  learn  how  to 
put  an  end  on  it."  This  is  the  real  test,  and  until  a 
machine  is  invented  which  can  turn  this  trick,  the  hand- 
made cigars,  rolled,  and  finished  according  to  the  old 
Spanish  method,  will  hold  first  place. 

The  Reader  in  the  Factory.  The  Tampa  cigarmakers 
are  all  either  Spanish  or  Cuban,  and  in  conversation 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  iiQ 

they  gesticulate  with  their  hands  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  is  impossible  for  them  to  talk  and  work  at  the  same 
time.  Hence,  the  manufacturers  are  very  sympathetic 
with  the  old  custom  of  maintaining  a  reader  in  the  fac- 
tory. This  reader  has  a  little  balcony  from  which  he 
reads  to  the  employees  while  they  are  at  work,  making 
his  selections  from  current  magazines,  newspapers, 
novels,  telegrams,  dispatches  from  abroad,  and  extracts 
from  books  on  national  history.  It  is  an  interesting 
sight  to  see  a  factory  of  four  or  five  hundred  workers 
busily  engaged  in  plying  their  trade,  and  listening  at  the 
same  time  to  a  story  read  by  the  paid  reader,  who,  with 
coat  off  and  suspenders  hanging,  gesticulates  and  shouts 
at  the  top  of  his  voice.  One  of  the  readers  in  a  Tampa 
factory  has  held  his  position  for  twenty  years.  He  reads 
daily  from  the  New  York  Herald,  translating  the  news 
articles  into  Spanish  as  he  reads  them.  The  reader  is 
well  paid,  for  each  worker  gives  him  twenty-five  cents 
a  week;  and  it  is  reported  that  some  of  these  men  re- 
ceive as  high  as  $300  a  month.  The  workers  decide  what 
shall  be  read.  Some  years  ago  there  was  a  strike  in  one 
of  the  factories  occasioned  by  a  protest  on  the  part  of 
the  women  workers  against  the  reading  of  an  especially 
vulgar  novel.  The  management  ordered  the  reading  of 
this  novel  stopped.  The  men  then  laid  down  their  tools 
and  refused  to  go  back  to  work  until  they  were  assured 
that  the  story  would  be  continued.  Among  the  cigar- 
makers  the  tradition  is  that  the  custom  of  reading  grew 
out  of  the  desire  of  the  early  workers  for  a  more  liberal 
education  than  was  offered  by  the  church  and  its  schools. 
Wages  and  Unions.  The  wages  of  the  cigarmakers 
are  based  on  the  piece  work  system.     An  expert  may 


I20  MEN  AND  THINGS 

make  as  high  as  $35  a  week;  the  average  is  a  little 
higher  than  in  other  employments  using  the  same  grade 
of  labor.  Some  years  ago,  when  a  bitter  strike  was  con- 
ducted in  Tampa,  the  question  of  wages  was  one  of  the 
grievances  of  the  men  but  was  not  the  real  trouble,  for 
the  problem  in  Tampa  now  as  well  as  then  is  racial  and 
psychological  rather  than  economic.  The  strike  was  set- 
tled on  the  basis  of  an  agreement  called  the  "  equaliza- 
tion agreement."  This  provided  for  the  appointment  of 
a  board  to  be  composed  of  three  manufacturers  and 
three  cigarmakers  who  would  meet  regularly,  hear  com- 
plaints, and  make  adjustments.  Most  of  the  workers 
belong  to  the  union,  and  under  this  agreement  there  is 
a  fair  degree  of  peace  in  the  industry. 

One  great  difficulty  is  that  the  workers  in  the  cigar 
industry  carry  into  their  trade  no  moral  enthusiasm. 
They  are  doing  something  that  is  not  absolutely  requisite 
for  human  welfare,  and  while  they  make  good  money, 
they  have  no  commanding  purpose  to  impel  them  to 
carry  on  their  work.  The  people  live  simple  lives  for 
the  most  part.  On  Saturday  nights  the  streets  of  the 
city  are  filled  with  people,  and  every  one  is  in  a  holiday 
mood.  The  majority  of  the  cigar  workers  in  Tampa 
are  communicants  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  it 
is  the  finest  building  in  the  city.  It  is  constructed  of 
marble  and  decorated  with  magnificent  windows.  The 
church  takes  little  interest,  however,  in  social  or  eco- 
nomic matters.  One  of  the  workers  said  to  me  the  last 
time  I  was  in  the  city,  "  When  the  business  men  forced 
us  back  to  work,  and  through  their  private  army  guarded 
the  city  with  sawed-off  shotguns,  the  church  was  back 
of  them.    All  the  priests  want  is  our  money."    To  the 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  I2i 

cigarmakers  a  church  is  a  church  whether  it  be  Catholic 
or  Protestant.  They  remember  the  days  in  Cuba  under 
the  domination  of  Spain  when  the  priests  held  them  in 
a  kind  of  bondage  of  fear,  and  made  it  easy  for  the 
political  forces  to  exploit  them.  In  America  they  do  not 
intend  to  give  the  church  a  chance  at  them. 

The  Cuban  is  easily  pleased ;  very  emotional,  and  more 
inclined  to  be  fickle  than  the  American  or  Englishman. 
A  few  years  ago  the  butchers  of  Tampa  raised  the  price 
of  meat.  Just  at  that  time  there  happened  to  be  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  in 
the  city.  He  gathered  some  of  the  people  together  in 
East  Tampa,  harangued  them  regarding  their  wrongs, 
and  called  a  second  meeting.  He  aroused  so  much  en- 
thusiasm that  nearly  two  thousand  of  the  cigar  workers 
quit  their  jobs;  procured  sticks,  and  bought  beefsteaks 
and  stuck  them  on  the  end  of  the  sticks.  Carrying  these 
over  their  shoulders  as  though  they  were  banners,  the 
whole  mob  marched  through  the  streets  to  the  City  Hall, 
where  they  demanded  of  the  startled  mayor,  that  he 
force  the  butchers  to  reduce  the  price  of  beef.  The 
mayor  gave  the  necessary  order  and  the  people  then  dis- 
persed and  went  quietly  back  to  their  homes.  Union 
organizers  complain  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  maintain 
a  union  of  any  strength  among  the  cigar  workers  in 
T^mpa.  "  They  are  very  enthusiastic  for  a  time,  but 
it  is  difficult  for  them  to  persistently  and  constantly  fol- 
low the  union  rules,"  said  one  of  the  leaders. 

The  city  of  the  cigarmakers  swarms  with  children, 
many  of  these  youngsters  play  in  the  street,  and  as  the 
climate  is  warm  most  of  the  year,  during  the  summer 
they  wear  very  little  clothing.     Until  recently  there  was 


122  MEN  AND  THINGS 

no  provision  made  for  organized  play  among  the  chil- 
dren of  the  city.  Even  now  the  provision  is  totally  in- 
adequate. 

The  Protestant  Churches.  The  Protestant  churches 
have  attempted  to  do  what  they  could  among  the  cigar- 
makers  ;  but  the  needs  have  been  so  great  and  the  equip- 
ment so  inadequate  that  the  best  results  have  not  been 
secured.  In  West  Tampa  there  is  a  very  interesting 
piece  of  work  being  conducted  by  the  Methodist,  the 
Baptist,  and  the  Congregational  churches.  One  of  the 
churches  has  a  plant  consisting  of  a  church,  a  school, 
and  a  house  that  is  used  as  a  social  center  for  the  entire 
community.  For  many  years  two  homes  were  operated 
by  this  church;  one  for  boys  and  one  for  girls.  Some 
seven  hundred  children  attend  the  school  in  connection 
with  the  church.  The  services  on  Sunday  are  in  Span- 
ish, and  while  it  has  not  been  possible  always  to  secure  a 
large  attendance  from  among  the  people,  still  there  is 
usually  a  representative  and  interesting  group  present. 
A  man  who  served  as  pastor  of  the  Cuban  church  was 
for  a  number  of  years  a  regular  worker  in  one  of  the 
big  cigar  factories.  This  gave  him  a  peculiar  relation- 
ship to  the  community.  He  was  accepted  as  a  friend  and 
equal ;  and  was  listened  to  with  reverence  and  respect 
where  another  man  would  not  have  secured  a  hearing. 

Some  Results  of  the  Work.  A  little  girl  in  the  com- 
munity where  one  of  the  church  homes  is  situated  was 
arrested  for  being  a  vagrant.  Her  face  was  dirty ;  she 
was  barefooted  and  wore  a  torn,  buttonless,  brown  ging- 
ham dress  that  was  positively  filthy  and  which  was  held 
in  place  by  a  safety-pin  fastened  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
the  whole  dress  a  weird,  elfish  look.    The  child's  picture 


E    o 


V-     O 
I-     C 


C       "C 


,       ^ 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  123 

was  taken  on  the  day  that  she  was  arrested  and  com- 
mitted to  the  care  of  the  church.  This  picture  is  a  typ- 
ical portrayal  of  childish  rebellion  against  life  and  all  that 
it  holds  in  store  for  the  human  race.  Her  mother  was 
a  worthless  woman,  and  tlie  child  had  never  known  a 
father.  All  her  life  she  had  really  lived  on  the  streets 
of  the  city.  Her  case  was  brought  before  the  Juvenile 
Court ;  she  was  put  on  probation  and  given  into  the  care 
of  the  workers  in  one  of  the  little  Protestant  churches. 
She  objected  to  having  her  hair  combed  and  refused  to 
wash  her  face.  Those  in  charge  of  the  home  were  al- 
most in  despair  of  being  able  to  do  anything  with  her. 
However,  they  won  her  confidence  by  allowing  her  to  go 
to  a  party  where  they  had  a  phonograph  and  motion  pic- 
tures. They  told  her  she  could  have  all  the  cake  and 
lemonade  she  wanted ;  so  once  in  her  life  under  happier 
conditions  she  had  a  chance  for  simple  enjoyment  and 
to  be  her  natural  self.  From  that  time  on  she  began  to 
take  an  interest  in  herself  and  to  gain  in  intelligence. 
Two  years  later  she  had  her  picture  taken  and  it  was 
exhibited  as  the  picture  of  the  typical  Cuban  girl,  for 
she  had  developed  into  a  perfect  little  beauty  and  showed 
capability.  This  story  illustrates  better  than  almost  any- 
thing else  the  infinite  possibilities  in  the  Cuban  people. 

Some  one  said  of  the  cigarmakers  in  Tampa  that  they 
were  not  Americans  and  never  could  be,  and  further 
stated :  "  They  are  interested  only  in  their  theaters,  their 
clubs,  their  cock-fights,  their  cofifee-houses,  and  their 
gambling  rooms."  It  is  true  that  they  are  interested 
in  these  things ;  because  they  are  by  temperament  a 
pleasure-loving,  happy-go-lucky  sort  of  people  and  these 
resources  are  the  expression  of  their  idea  of  life.     If 


124  MEN  AND  THINGS 

the  church  would  meet  the  needs  of  these  people,  it  must 
be  able  to  appreciate  them,  and  sympathetically  to  in- 
terpret life  for  them.  They  can  all  become,  as  indeed 
most  of  them  are  now,  good  American  citizens,  but  they 
will  never  be  like  the  Americans  in  our  Northern  cities. 
We  must  allow  them  to  develop  along  the  lines  of  their 
own  racial  interests.  How  can  we  ever  expect  to  be 
friends  with  Latin  America  if  we  cannot  learn  how  to 
be  good  neighbors  to  the  Latin  Americans  living  in  our 
own  land  ? 

The  Challenge  of  Conditions  in  the  Factories.  The 
conditions  in  the  factories  are  not  ideal  by  any  means, 
nor  is  the  nature  of  the  business  such  as  to  promote  the 
highest  type  of  character.  The  work  is  hard,  and  it  is 
performed  in  a  heavy  atmosphere  poisoned  with  the 
breath  of  many  individuals,  and  vitiated  by  the  odors  of 
human  bodies  and  damp  tobacco.  The  rooms  where 
cigars  are  made  have  to  be  kept  closed  to  save  the  weed ; 
and  every  window  is  down,  and  no  matter  how  hot  the 
weather,  not  a  breath  of  fresh  air  is  allowed  to  enter 
the  place.  The  atmosphere  is  so  bad  that  it  gives  one  a 
headache  even  to  pass  through ;  imagine  what  it  would 
mean  to  spend  your  life  working  in  such  a  place. 

Tuberculosis  makes  deep  inroads  in  the  ranks  of  the 
workers.  Statistics  show  that  the  proportion  of  mor- 
tality among  the  cigar  workers  from  tuberculosis  of  the 
lungs  is  higher  than  in  almost  any  other  occupation. 
Between  the  ages  of  15  and  24  the  proportionate  mor- 
tality from  tuberculosis  is  48.5  per  cent,  of  the  total  deaths 
as  compared  with  33.8  per  cent,  for  all  occupations.^ 
The  reason  for  this  is  that  the  workers  must  sit  for  long 

*  U.  S.  Bulletin  of  Labor,  1917, 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  125 

hours  at  a  table  in  a  bad  atmosphere  and  surrounded  by 
others,  many  of  whom  are  suffering  from  tuberculosis. 
There  are  nearly  50,000  members  of  the  union  and  these 
men  have  been  fighting  for  years  for  a  betterment  of 
conditions.  However,  just  as  in  other  trades,  the  em- 
ployers claim  that  it  is  impossible  to  make  cigars  without 
sacrifice  of  the  working  men  and  women.  The  workers 
have  accepted  it  there,  as  other  workers  have  accepted  it 
in  other  occupations,  with  the  stoic  attitude  that  marks 
so  many  of  the  laborers  of  our  country. 

One  of  the  most  noted  social  workers  in  America,  a 
woman  with  strength  and  charm  of  character,  who  is  a 
leader  in  every  radical  movement,  began  her  life  in  a 
cigar  factory.  Later  on  she  married  a  man  of  wealth  and 
has  lived  a  life  of  ease  ever  since.  She  says  of  her  early 
experiences :  "  For  twelve  years  I  was  a  cigar  worker 
in  Cleveland.  I  was  ill-nourished  and  poorly  clad.  I 
worked  at  night  as  well  as  by  day  to  help  piece  out  my 
family's  existence.  I  never  had  anything  I  wanted." 
This  might  be  said  of  a  great  many  of  the  cigar  workers 
and  their  families.  The  only  difference  would  be  that 
she  did  not  tell  all  of  her  story.  In  addition  to  the  long 
hours  there  is  an  undermining  of  the  health  that  goes 
with  it.  Now  all  these  people  are  working  for  some 
one's  pleasure.  They  are  making  luxuries.  The  most 
radical  person  I  ever  knew  in  my  life  was  an  eighteen- 
year-old  girl  whose  parents  had  lost  their  money.  She 
was  forced  to  go  to  work  in  a  cigar  factory  when  she 
was  twelve  years  old.  She  was  bitter  toward  life  and 
had  no  faith  or  confidence  in  anything  or  in  any  person. 
Said  she,  "  When  I  look  around  and  see  people  who  have 
all  the  money  and  all  the  clothes  and  all  the  good  things 


ia6  MEN  AND  THINGS 

that  I  want  and  can  never  have,  I  know  that  conditions 
are  unjust  and  must  be  changed.  I  don't  care  what  it 
costs;  I  am  going  to  do  my  part  in  fighting  and  agitating 
until  there  is  a  change."  This  is  an  attitude  that  is 
now  growing  very  common.  There  are  deep-seated 
forces  at  work  perpetuating  these  ideas.  By  valuing 
things  more  than  men  these  conditions  are  made  a  per- 
manent part  of  our  life. 

Furs.  "  Why  do  you  want  to  wear  furs  in  the  sum- 
mer-time?" I  asked  a  young  lady.  It  was  an  extremely 
hot  day  and  she  was  wearing  a  white  dress  with  very 
short  sleeves  and  cut  low  in  the  neck,  but  she  had  a  fox 
fur  around  her  neck;  there  was  quite  a  margin  between 
the  lower  edge  of  her  fur  and  the  upper  edge  of  her 
dress.  "  Why,"  she  replied,  "  I  think  it  is  pretty,  don't 
you?"  This  fur  had  come  on  a  long  journey  and  gone 
through  many  processes  before  it  came  into  her  hands. 
Many  men  and  women  had  labored  to  produce  it.  The 
man  who  had  caught  the  fox  probably  had  a  line  of 
traps  stretched  over  nine  or  ten  miles  of  some  stream  in 
the  northern  part  of  Canada  or  Alaska.  All  through  the 
bitter  cold  of  the  winter  he  had  lived  alone  in  a  cabin, 
and  day  after  day  had  tramped  that  line  to  take  out  the 
animals  that  had  been  caught.  Bringing  them  back  to 
his  cabin  he  skinned  them ;  turned  the  hide  over  a  piece 
of  board  and  stood  it  behind  the  stove  to  cure.  Later 
the  pelts  were  brought  out  of  the  wilderness  and  sold 
into  the  hands  of  a  group  of  fur  workers.  They  were 
then  more  fully  cured,  and  passed  on  to  the  makers  of 
scarfs.     All  of  these  workers  were  producing  a  luxury. 

The  Trappers'  Community.  In  one  of  the  regions 
of  the  Northwest  where  trapping  is  carried  on  through 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  127 

the  winter  there  are  three  little  settlements.  There  are 
only  three  white  people  and  one  white  family  in  two  of 
them,  and  the  third  settlement,  which  is  a  trading  post, 
has  about  half  a  dozen  white  families.  From  the  time 
that  the  snow  falls  in  the  autumn  until  late  in  May  of 
the  following  spring,  no  one  comes  into  these  com- 
munities except  the  man  carrying  the  mail  who  comes 
once  in  about  ten  days.  No  one  goes  out  from  the  com- 
munity unless  it  is  absolutely  necessary.  The  only  min- 
isters that  ever  visit  there  are  those  who  come  in  the 
summer  to  enjoy  the  fishing  in  the  near-by  streams.  The 
wife  of  a  trapper  in  this  region  said  to  a  minister :  ''  Our 
oldest  girl  is  nearly  thirteen  years  old.  She  has  never 
been  to  Sunday-school  and  never  heard  a  sermon.  She 
has  never  seen  a  church  and  you  are  the  only  preacher 
to  whom  she  has  ever  talked.  When  I  was  married 
fifteen  years  ago  in  Missouri  and  we  started  for  this 
country,  I  had  no  idea  that  a  girl  who  had  been  brought 
up  in  the  church  and  was  a  teacher  in  the  Sunday-school 
could  live  so  long  in  a  community  where  there  is  no 
church  or  religious  service  of  any  kind."  When  we 
learn  of  places  like  this  where  there  are  no  churches, 
and  then  hear  of  some  small  community  that  has  six  or 
eight  churches  and  only  about  five  or  six  hundred  people, 
we  wonder  if  there  is  not  a  call  for  a  new  kind  of  mis- 
sionary effort  and  zeal.  The  church  is  not  alone  to 
blame  nor  is  any  one  wholly  responsible  for  this  condi- 
tion, and  yet  we  are  all  to  blame,  for  if  it  is  necessary 
that  a  man  should  live  on  the  outpost  of  civilization  it 
should  be  made  possible  for  some  of  the  good  things  of 
civilization  to  be  taken  to  him.  In  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary work  we  have  crossed  oceans,  traversed  moun- 


128  MEN  AND  THINGS 

tains,  translated  the  Bible  into  new  languages,  and  made 
every  effort  to  reach  new  groups  of  people.  In  our  own 
land  we  have  neglected  people  just  because  they  seem- 
ingly live  in  a  world  outside  of  our  own.  While  they  are 
producing  the  things  we  demand  and  use,  we  have  for- 
gotten the  men  who  have  brought  these  things  to  us. 

The  Theater.  People  have  always  been  interested  in 
seeing  life  presented  in  a  play.  The  theater  has  had  a 
large  place  in  the  history  of  every  nation.  It  has  fur- 
nished the  means  of  recreation  and  amusement,  and  in  a 
large  measure  it  has  been  a  great  educator  of  the  people. 
Religion  was  once  taught  through  the  theater.  In  fact, 
much  of  our  church  ritual  is  taken  from  performances 
that  were  meant  to  symbolize  great  facts  and  emotions 
of  human  life.  The  modern  theater  has  become  highly 
commercialized,  and  those  who  attend  the  performances 
continually  demand  more  magnificent  scenery,  more 
elaborate  costumes,  and  more  thrills.  What  of  the  per- 
formers ?  Have  you  ever  wondered,  as  you  looked  at 
the  play,  just  how  the  people  who  are  taking  part  would 
look  if  you  saw  them  off  the  stage?  For  instance,  there 
is  a  girl  that  is  playing  the  part  of  an  old  woman.  She 
is  dressed  in  a  plain  black,  close-fitting  gown,  and  hob- 
bles across  the  stage  leaning  heavily  upon  a  stick.  In 
actual  life  she  is  a  young  woman  under  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  has  bright  red  hair,  a  charming  smile,  a  figure 
that  her  friends  describe  as  willowy,  and  walks  with  a 
springy  step  like  that  of  a  high  school  girl.  Another 
character  in  the  play  is  a  woman  who  plays  the  part  of 
the  vampire.  At  home  surrounded  by  her  three  children, 
she  is  a  demure,  domestic  little  body. 

A  few  years  ago  one  of  our  theatrical  critics  said  that  a 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  129 

glimpse  behind  the  scenes  would  cure  almost  any  girl 
of  the  desire  to  become  an  actress.  The  glamor  is  all 
in  front  of  the  curtain.  Behind  the  scenes  we  come  face 
to  face  with  a  hard-working  group  of  men  and  women 
who  are  doing  their  best  to  furnish  amusement.  One 
of  the  leading  actresses,  in  writing  the  history  of  her 
life,  said  that  the  only  opportunity  for  success  on  the 
stage  was  for  the  person  who  comprehends  fully  that  the 
theater  offers  but  one  thing — a  chance  for  long  hours  of 
drudgery  and  the  uncertain  rewards  that  come  from  the 
hands  of  a  fickle  public.  She  described  vividly  the  actors' 
boarding-house,  with  its  narrow  cramped  bedrooms ;  its 
dimly-lit  halls,  with  the  faded  and  worn  carpet;  the 
smell  of  cooking  that  permeated  the  whole  place  "  like 
the  ghost  of  a  thousand  dead  dinners ;  "  the  bitter  lone- 
liness, the  jealousies,  the  misunderstandings,  and  she 
added,  "  my  whole  being  revolts  against  all  the  petty 
details  of  the  life."  Then  there  is  the  traveling;  nights 
on  the  train  and  days  spent  in  the  hotels  until  time  to 
go  to  the  opera  house;  then  the  feverish  excitement  of 
dressing ;  the  play ;  and  back  to  the  hotel  for  a  few  hours' 
sleep  and  away  again  to  another  town. 

The  trouble  is  that  most  of  the  young  people  who 
think  that  they  would  like  to  go  on  the  stage  think 
only  of  the  theaters  in  New  York,  Chicago,  Boston,  or  in 
one  of  the  other  large  cities.  The  great  majority  of  the 
actor-folk  spend  most  of  their  time  traveling  from  place 
to  place.  There  are  comparatively  few  plays  that  enjoy 
long  runs.  Nowadays  in  one-night  stands  there  are  few 
places  where  special  rates  at  the  hotels  are  secured  for 
actors.  Usually  the  worst  rooms  in  the  house  are  as- 
signed to  them.     In  fact,  the  rooms  that  are  given  to 


130  MEN  AND  THINGS 

llic  actors  and  actresses  are  known  in  a  great  many  hotels 
IS  the  Soubrette  Row.  The  best  rooms  are  saved  for 
the  regular  patrons  of  the  house,  such  as  travehng  sales- 
men, while  anything  is  "  good  enough  for  the  actor." 
In  China  the  player  folk  live  to  themselves.  They  have 
no  other  companions  but  form  a  class  of  their  own.  We 
have  not  recognized  the  caste  system  in  this  country,  and 
we  do  not  officially  ostracise  the  players,  but  in  effect 
this  is  what  we  do.  Their  world  is  a  world  apart,  yet 
they  are  the  ones  that  help  to  amuse  us.  Each  year  we 
pay  millions  of  dollars  into  the  cofifers  of  the  theaters 
to  see  plays  that  are  produced  by  these  men  and  women 
who  work  hard,  and  who  receive  but  little  for  their  toil. 

Once  in  a  while  the  newspapers  tell  the  story  of  some 
old  actor,  who  has  just  died  poor,  broken  down,  and  for- 
gotten by  the  public.  One  of  the  most  pathetic  figures 
of  these  modern  days  was  that  of  an  old  actor  in  Brook- 
lyn, who  had  to  be  buried  at  the  expense  of  his  friends. 
They  took  up  a  collection  to  buy  the  casket  in  which  he 
now  rests ;  otherwise  he  would  have  been  buried  in  the 
potter's  field  although  thirty  years  ago  he  was  one  of  the 
most  popular  men  on  Broadway.  There  are  thousands 
of  actors  and  actresses  and  they  live  for  the  most  part 
to  themselves.  The  Actors'  Church  Alliance  was  formed 
some  years  ago  and  has  branches  in  many  of  our  cities. 
There  is,  too,  an  organization  known  as  the  Actors'  Fund, 
which  provides  relief  for  the  poor  found  among  these 
hard-working  men  and  women  who  give  so  much  pleas- 
ure to  millions  of  people. 

The  Motion  Pictures.  The  motion-picture  business 
has  become  one  of  the  greatest  enterprises  of  our  day. 
In  1914  there  were  over  20,000  motion-picture  theaters 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  I3t 

in  the  United  States.  The  year  before  that  three  hun- 
dred million  dollars  was  spent  for  films,  and  over  five 
billion  paid  admissions  were  recorded  throughout  the 
country.  The  motion  picture  has  made  possible  the  re- 
production of  the  best  plays,  and  they  are  offered  to  the 
people  at  a  very  low  price.  Five  and  ten  cents  will 
permit  any  one  to  be  amused  for  a  whole  evening.  The 
motion  picture  theater  possesses  great  educational  pos- 
sibilities. It  has  revolutionized  our  ideas  of  entertain- 
ment. The  best  books  have  been  put  into  films  and  more 
people  than  ever  before  are  having  a  chance  to  read. 
This  is  having  a  profound  effect  upon  our  lives,  for  as 
has  been  said,  "  the  thing  we  see  impresses  us  more  than 
what  we  hear."  We  often  say,  "  it  went  in  one  ear  and 
out  the  other  "  but  no  one  ever  says,  "  it  went  in  one 
eye  and  out  the  other."  The  making  of  films  requires 
the  work  of  thousands  of  actors ;  besides  carpenters, 
masons,  machine  operators,  directors,  and  managers.  It 
is  a  huge  business ! 

A  crowd  gathered  in  New  York  at  Thirty-fourth 
Street  and  Second  Avenue  one  Saturday  afternoon.  A 
man  was  beating  a  boy  when  a  disheveled  woman  ran 
out  from  the  side  entrance  of  a  saloon  and  threw  her- 
self upon  this  beast.  He  grasped  her  by  the  throat  and 
was  just  about  to  strangle  her,  when  the  boy,  released 
from  the  clutches  of  the  man,  stabbed  him  in  the  back 
with  a  knife  and  thus  freed  his  mother.  It  happened 
so  quickly  that  many  of  the  crowd  thought  that  they 
were  looking  upon  a  real  tragedy.  It  proved  to  be 
simply  a  "  movie  "  being  enacted  upon  the  street. 

In  a  Florida  city  an  automobile  dashed  into  town;  a 
young  girl  was  in  the  back  seat,  while  in  the  front  was 


132  MEN  AND  THINGS 

a  young  man  driving  tlic  machine  with  one  hand  and 
holding  a  preacher  down  with  the  other.  They  stopped 
in  front  of  a  church ;  went  inside,  and  there  they  were 
met  by  two  other  men,  accompHces  of  the  young  fellow, 
and  who  stood  one  on  either  side  of  the  minister  with 
revolvers  at  his  head  and  forced  him  to  perform  the 
marriage  ceremony.  An  outrage  in  real  life,  but  really 
played  for  the  movies. 

In  the  West  there  are  cities  devoted  entirely  to  the 
motion-picture  industry.  In  some  of  the  elaborate  plays 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  are  expended  in  getting 
the  scenic  effects.  Cities  have  been  built  and  then 
burned  to  give  the  effect  of  a  sacked  town  being  de- 
stroyed by  the  enemy.  Shipwrecks  have  been  shown 
where  real  ships  have  been  purchased,  and  then  run 
upon  the  rocks  and  deliberately  wrecked  to  get  the 
proper  setting  for  the  pictures  and  the  necessary  thrills 
for  the  people.  What  of  these  people  who  follow  the 
motion-picture  industry  for  a  living?  Their  lives  are 
apart  from  the  rest  of  the  community.  It  seems  fasci- 
nating, but  it  is  one  filled  with  hard  labor,  uncertain 
hours,  and  affords  rather  scanty  pay.  The  pastor  of 
one  of  the  Los  Angeles  churches  attempted  to  reach  the 
people  living  in  the  near-by  "  movie-city  "  but  he  failed. 
A  plan  should  be  devised  whereby  a  sympathetic  under- 
standing might  bring  these  hard-working  people  into 
relationship  with  the  church.  The  influence  of  such  a 
tie  would  be  far-reaching  in  results. 

The  Makers  of  Other  Luxuries.  Another  group  of 
workers  are  those  who  make  jewelry;  others  are 
at  work  making  fancy  costumes,  special  designs  in  mil- 
linery, and  artificial  flowers.     In  fact,  when  we  take  a 


THE  MAKERS  OF  LUXURIES  133 

census  of  all  of  the  people  who  are  at  work  serving 
the  demands  of  this  age,  which  loves  the  extraordinary 
and  insists  upon  luxuries  as  a  right,  you  find  that  there 
are  in  reality  hundreds  of  thousands  of  these  workers 
who  are  in  every  sense  of  the  word  serving  humanity. 
Whether  they  are  serving  in  the  highest  and  best  way 
is  not  the  question  we  are  discussing.  As  long  as  we 
tolerate  an  age  of  luxury  and  draft  an  army  of  thousands 
of  men,  women,  and  children  to  help  produce  these  lux- 
uries, so  long  must  we  consider  the  needs  of  the  men, 
women,  and  children  so  drafted.  The  church,  if  its 
appeal  is  to  reach  all  the  groups,  must  reach  all  the 
workers  who  are  making  possible  the  abundance  of  things 
that  minister  to  an  age  of  luxury. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  World  of  Seasonal  Labor  and  the  Casual 
Workers 

"  Why  is  it  that  those  who  produce  food  are  hungry, 
and  that  those  who  make  clothes  are  ragged?  Why, 
moreover,  is  it  that  those  who  build  palaces  are  homeless, 
and  that  those  who  do  the  nation's  work  are  forced  to 
choose  between  beggary,  crime,  or  suicide  in  a  nation 
that  has  fertile  soil  enough  to  feed  and  clothe  the  world ; 
material  enough  to  build  homes  to  house  all  peoples,  an 
enormous  productive  capacity  through  labor-saving  ma- 
chinery of  forty  thousand  million  man-power ;  and  where 
there  are  only  sixty-five  million  souls  to  feed,  clothe,  and 
shelter?" 

The  foregoing  questions  were  put  into  the  platform 
and  issued  by  the  Industrial  Army  of  1894  which  was 
known  as  Coxey's  army.  That  year  was  one  of  great 
depression  all  over  the  United  States.  The  causes  for 
the  depression  were  discussed  very  widely  at  the  time. 
It  was  the  year  following  the  great  World's  Fair  in 
Chicago  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  were  out  of 
employment.  There  was  suffering  and  deprivation  in  all 
the  cities  of  the  United  States.  Charitable  institutions 
were  taxed  to  their  limit  by  the  new  responsibilities  put 
upon  them.  The  idea  of  having  all  the  unemployed  form 
themselves  into  a  great  army  of  peace,  and  march  to 

135 


136  MEN  AND  THINGS 

Washington  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  to  the  Presi- 
dent and  Congress  a  petition  for  the  right  to  labor,  de- 
veloped in  the  mind  of  a  man  named  Coxey  who  lived  at 
Masillon,  Ohio.  He  gathered  together  the  first  army 
numbering  several  thousand  men.  These  men  were  or- 
ganized into  companies,  and  officers  were  appointed  after 
the  fashion  of  the  regular  military  customs. 

Similar  armies  mobilized  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 
One  at  Los  Angeles,  another  at  San  Francisco,  one  in 
Boston,  and  one  in  the  Northwest,  started  towards 
Washington  at  one  time.  There  were  about  10,000  men 
on  the  march.  They  were  ridiculed,  persecuted,  and 
feared.  When  the  army  that  started  from  San  Francisco 
reached  Sacramento,  it  encamped  outside  the  city.  On 
Sunday  night  this  curious  army  marched  down  into  the 
center  of  the  town,  halted  before  the  first  church  it 
came  to,  then  the  men  filed  in  and  in  an  orderly  fashion 
filled  up  every  pew.  The  remainder  of  the  army  marched 
on  to  the  next  church  and  did  the  same  thing.  This  was 
repeated  until  every  church  in  the  city  was  filled  to  its 
capacity.  This  was  the  first  and  probably  the  last  time 
in  the  history  of  that  city  w^hen  church  pews  were  at  a 
premium  on  Sunday  night. 

The  men  of  this  army  were  harmless  for  the  most 
part.  A  great  many  of  them  were  worthless  fellows, 
but  the  vast  majority  were  honest  workingmen  who  had 
been  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  owing  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  times  were  unable  to  find  anything 
to  do,  and,  consequently,  were  in  despair.  Their  plan 
was  to  go  quietly  across  the  country  and  when  they 
arrived  in  Washington  simply  to  fold  their  arms  and  ask 
the  government  what  it  was  going  to  do  for  them.    Only 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS        137 

a  few  of  the  men  of  Coxey's  army  reached  Washington 
and  the  spectacular  scheme  failed.  It,  however,  em- 
phasized the  need  of  the  time  and  showed  up  the  extreme 
danger  in  the  situation. 

The  Unemployed.  The  unemployed  man  presents  a 
real  problem  to  society.  Carlyle  said,  "  A  man  willing  to 
work,  and  unable  to  find  work  is,  perhaps,  the  saddest 
sight  that  fortune's  inequality  exhibits  under  the  sun." 
Many  well-to-do  people  living  in  comfortable  circum- 
stances, with  position  and  income  assured,  assert  that 
if  a  man  wants  work  he  can  always  find  it,  and  that  the 
only  men  unemployed  are  the  shiftless  and  the  lazy. 
Right  now  the  war  has  absorbed  all  the  surplus  labor, 
and  a  condition  exists  different  from  any  that  we  have 
previously  known  in  the  history  of  America.  Immigra- 
tion has  been  cut  off  and  the  demands  for  new  enter-" 
prises  have  called  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  new 
workers,  so  that  at  the  present  time  there  is  no  reason 
why  any  man  should  be  out  of  work.  In  fact,  so  serious 
has  the  need  for  men  become  that  the  latest  interpreta- 
tion put  upon  the  draft  law  amounts  practically  to  a 
conscription  of  labor  for  all  men  of  draft  age. 

The  Banana  Boat.  A  whistle  sounded  on  the  Missis- 
sippi river  just  below  New  Orleans  early  one  afternoon 
last  summer.  It  was  a  dismal,  rainy  day,  and  as  the  long 
screech  died  away  the  sound  seemed  almost  prophetic  of 
some  coming  disaster.  Soon  a  huge  steamship  painted 
drab-gray,  with  a  red  diamond  upon  its  smoke-stack, 
nosed  its  way  from  out  of  the  mist  and  crowded  in  close 
to  the  pier.  Scarcely  were  the  ropes  fast  when  there 
began  to  appear  on  the  dock  men  black  and  white,  ragged, 
unkempt    fellows   who   had   hurried    from   the   near-by 


138  MEN  AND  THINGS 

saloons,  poolrooms,  and  other  lounging  places.  This 
boat  was  just  in  from  Central  America  loaded  down  with 
bananas.  Two  enormous  unloaders  were  set  up  along- 
side of  the  vessel.  The  machinery  of  these  started  and 
an  endless  belt,  which  traveled  to  the  bottom  of  the  hold 
and  out  again,  came  up  loaded  with  bunches  of  bananas. 
The  fruit  was  brought  down  and  thrown  upon  a  table. 
Here  two  men,  standing  one  on  either  side  of  the  travel- 
ing belt,  would  take  hold  of  a  bunch  of  bananas  and 
place  it  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  third  man,  who  in  turn 
carried  it  ofif  to  the  waiting  freight-car.  Fifty  men  went 
to  work  almost  immediately;  twenty  an  hour  later  in 
the  afternoon ;  and  at  nine  o'clock  that  night,  under  the 
glare  of  the  electric  lights,  ninety-two  men  were  busily 
engaged  in  carrying  the  fruit  and  storing  it  in  the 
freight-cars. 

All  night  long  the  men  worked  at  a  feverish  pace. 
They  were  organized  so  that  they  formed  an  endless 
chain.  The  first  two  continuously  placed  the  fruit  upon 
the  third  man's  shoulder,  and  he  in  turn  stepped  along 
as  fast  as  those  ahead  of  him  would  allow.  When  he 
was  relieved  of  his  bunch  of  bananas  at  the  car  door  by 
two  men  on  the  inside  who  stowed  the  fruit  away,  he 
would  take  his  place  in  the  line  of  men  returning  for 
more  fruit.  Round  after  round  this  group  of  men 
passed,  until  in  less  than  seventeen  hours  of  constant 
work  every  banana  was  taken  ofT  the  boat.  When  we 
realize  that  this  boat  carried  nearly  ten  thousand  tons, 
we  get  some  idea  of  the  activity  of  the  workers. 

I  said  to  one  of  the  men  in  the  line,  "  How  often  do 
you  get  a  job  of  this  kind?" 

"  That  depends,"  he  replied.     "  A  banana  boat  comes 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS        139 

in  about  every  three  weeks  and  then  I  have  about  two 
days'  work." 

"  What  do  you  do  between  times  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Well,  not  much  of  anything.  Sometimes  one  thing, 
sometimes  another.  Just  kind  of  live  along  between 
the  trips  of  these  boats." 

Millinery  and  Dresses.  A  little  girl  in  Chicago 
wanted  to  learn  the  millinery  business.  She  easily  found 
a  position.  It  only  paid  four  dollars  a  week,  but  she 
was  learning,  so  she  was  willing  to  begin  at  that  price. 
Just  before  Easter  the  shop  where  she  worked  was 
crowded  with  orders,  and  she  was  forced  to  work  from 
early  in  the  morning  until  late  at  night.  When  Easter 
was  over  she  said,  "  All  I  know  about  making  hats  is 
how  to  sew  wire  together  and  line  frames."  The  girls 
in  this  shop  who  had  been  so  busy  were  now  thrown 
out  of  employment.  They  either  had  to  find  other  em- 
ployment or  else  live  on  what  little  money  had  been 
saved  during  the  rush  time.  "  I  can  never  get  ahead," 
said  one  of  the  workers  in  the  shop.  Last  year  I  was 
able  to  make  just  enough  to  carry  me  through  the  dull 
season."  What  is  true  of  the  millinery  trade  is  also  true 
of  some  lines  of  garment  trades,  especially  the  makers 
of  evening  gowns.  At  one  period  they  are  rushed  to  the 
limit  of  their  endurance :  at  another  there  is  nothing 
to  do.  Business  demands  cannot  be  regulated  perfectly. 
The  clerks  in  the  stores  at  Christmas  time  must  expect 
to  do  extra  work. 

The  Vagabond  Workers.  One  night  in  Seattle  I  saw 
a  large  group  of  men  gathered  on  a  street  corner  and 
singing  at  the  top  of  their  voices.  The  strange  chorus 
was  led  by  a  young  fellow  who  was  standing  on  a  soap 


140  MEN  AND  THINGS 

box.  The  song  he  was  teaching  was  mere  doggerel ;  the 
refrain  of  it  being  "  Oh,  Mr.  Block,  you  take  the  cake. 
You  make  me  ache."  The  leader  would  pronounce  a 
line,  then  say,  "  Now,  fellow  workingmen,  all  sing  and 
sing  with  all  your  might.  Let  us  show  them  what  we 
can  do."  And  the  motley  crowd  shouted  out  the  words 
of  the  song  which  told  the  story  of  a  poor  "  blanket 
stiff  " — a  fellow  who  has  to  carry  his  blankets  when  he 
goes  looking  for  a  job — who  got  through  work  in  one 
place,  went  into  an  employment  agency  to  ask  for  a  new 
job  and  was  told  that  if  he  would  put  up  the  money  he 
could  get  the  job.  He  paid  two  dollars  and  was  sent 
out  into  the  woods.  When  he  got  off  the  train  there  was 
no  job  in  sight.  He  came  back  and  made  his  complaint, 
but  nothing  could  be  done  because  that  was  the  method 
by  which  the  employment  agency  made  its  money.  He 
then  applied  to  Samuel  Gompers  of  the  Federation  of 
Labor,  but  all  he  got  from  Gompers  was  "  sympathy." 
This  man's  name  was  "  Block,"  and  to  accentuate  the 
significance  of  the  name  the  leader  would  hold  up  his 
hand,  stop  the  crowd  from  singing,  and  then  tapping 
on  his  head  would  say,  "  What  was  his  name?  "  and  they 
would  reply  "Block."  "What  was  it  made  of?"  and 
they  shouted  "  wood." 

It  was  amusing  to  listen  to  this  crowd  but  in  the  midst 
of  the  grotesquery  of  the  leader  and  the  raucous  howl- 
ing of  the  song  there  was  a  moral  quality  and  a  spiritual 
earnestness  that  even  a  casual  listener  could  feel.  These 
men  had  just  come  in  from  the  woods.  They  were 
laborers  who  had  been  lumbering  all  through  the  winter, 
and  now  at  the  end  of  the  season  were  thrown  on  the 
city  with  nothing  to  do.    The  Industrial  Workers  of  the 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS       14I 

World,  that  revolutionary  organization  that  was  formed 
in  Colorado  early  in  this  century,  had  found  a  fertile 
soil  in  the  minds  of  these  men  and  had  not  been  slow 
to  sow  the  seed.  I  stood  with  one  of  the  group  and 
listened.  My  friend  was  an  elderly  man  who  had  just 
reached  the  city  from  the  mines  in  Alaska.  In  his  youth 
he  had  been  a  miner  in  Wales.  Said  he,  "  This  carries 
me  back  to  the  days  of  my  boyhood.  The  Welsh  sang 
as  these  men  do,  and  the  discontent  of  the  miners  in 
our  district  gathered  headway  under  the  leadership  of 
the  local  Methodist  preacher.  The  men  sang  and  from 
their  singing  began  an  enthusiasm  that  rolled  through- 
out the  whole  region  in  a  wave  of  protest  against  the 
bitter  conditions  under  which  we  were  forced  to  work. 
We  got  results.  If  these  men  keep  on  singing,  some  day 
they  are  going  to  make  their  message  heard."  The  main 
reason  for  the  I.  W.  W.  and  similar  organizations  is  that 
nothing  has  been  done  for  the  laborer  who  is  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  industrial  ladder.  He  is  considered  a  tramp, 
pushed  into  the  out-of-the-way  places,  forced  to  do  the 
hardest,  most  perilous  work,  and  society  forgets  him. 
He  is  a  bum,  a  tramp,  or  hobo.  No  one  has  a  good 
word  for  him.  Every  effort  to  improve  his  condition  is 
looked  upon  with  disfavor.  This  little  poem  expresses 
the  feeling  of  many  of  these  men : 

"  The  world  is  housed,  and  homed,  and  wived, 
It  takes  no  note  as  I  pass  by. 
Nobody  shared  in  the  life  I  lived, 
Nobody'll  share  in  the  death  I  die. 

"  East,  west,  north,  and  south  I've  hiked, 
Seen  more  things  than  I'd  care  to  tell ; 
Part  of  the  world  that  I've  seen  I  liked — 
None  of  it  liked  me  overwell. 


142  MEN  AND  THINGS 

"  I  cheated  once — or  twice — in  my  time, 
But  the  joy  of  crime  I  never  could  see, 
So  I  never  went  the  way  of  crime — 
No  pull-and-haul  with  the  cops  for  me. 

**  I  never  was  low  like  the  hobo  crew. 

Though  I've  begged  my  bread  on  many  a  day, 
But  I  always  worked  when  they  asked  me  to, 
To  pay  for  a  meal  or  a  bed  in  the  hay." 

There  has  never  been  any  great  success  in  the  at- 
tempts to  organize  the  vagabond  workers.  The  member- 
ship in  the  I.  W.  W.  and  similar  organizations  rises  or  de- 
clines so  rapidly  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  quote  any 
figures  that  are  dependable.  Professor  Parker  reported 
the  results  of  a  careful  study  made  in  California  in  1915 
and  which  showed  that  there  were  at  that  time  4.500 
affiliated  members  in  that  state.  The  membership  fluc- 
tuates, however,  because  when  trouble  arises  in  any  in- 
dustry in  the  West  the  membership  in  the  I.  W.  W. 
always  doubles  or  trebles.  In  one  strike  in  Washington 
the  organization  claimed  membership  of  3,000,  but  there 
were  about  7,000  on  strike.  The  organization  of  these 
workers  and  the  explosive  quality  of  their  teachings 
form  a  real  menace  to  society.  The  philosophy  of  the 
I.  W.  W.  is  expressed  in  the  words  of  one  of  the 
leaders  who  explained  that  according  to  their  code  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  right  or  wrong.  He  said,  "  We 
know  what  people  mean  when  they  discuss  these  ques- 
tions but  they  have  no  significance  in  our  lives.  The 
only  principle  that  we  acknowledge  is  the  principle  of 
expediency.  It  is  better  not  to  break  windows  because 
it  will  get  us  into  trouble  with  the  authorities,  but  the 
abstract  principle  of  breaking  windows  and  destroying 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS       143 

property  being  wrong  makes  no  appeal  to  us  whatever.'' 
The  man  who  gave  utterance  to  this  statement  was  for- 
merly a  Presbyterian  minister.  He  was  in  charge  of  a 
church  in  a  steel  city  and  his  contact  v/ith  the  workers 
gained  for  him  a  clear  understanding  of  the  poverty  and 
despair  that  grow  out  of  their  conditions.  This  vision 
and  the  sight  of  the  people  on  the  other  side  of  the  social 
gulf,  who  were  living  most  recklessly  in  the  midst  of 
their  luxuries,  led  him  to  become  one  of  the  leading 
radicals  in  the  labor  world.  The  philosophy  of  the  I.  W. 
W.,  and  the  power  of  this  organization  are  increasing  just 
in  proportion  as  we  fail  to  correct  the  abuses  that  now 
destroy  the  lives  of  men. 

Causes.  In  this  country  we  have  made  little  effort  to 
prevent  the  consequences  which  are  certain  to  follow  the 
operation  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  We  have 
acted  upon  the  theory  that  all  we  need  to  do  is  to  allow 
natural  law  to  have  a  chance  for  its  operation.  In- 
dividualism is  praised  as  being  the  means  of  saving  the 
worker.  The  result  is  that  there  is  a  shockingly  large 
amount  of  labor  turn-over  each  year — that  is,  each  job 
has  two  or  three  men  working  on  it.  We  have  pre- 
sented to  us  also  the  spectacle  of  thousands  of  men  who 
form  an  army  of  migratory  laborers.  In  one  part  of 
the  United  States  there  will  be  a  labor  shortage  and  in 
another  there  will  be  a  shortage  of  work  to  be  done. 

If  we  would  know  what  makes  the  tramp  and  the 
vagabond  we  must  become  acquainted  with  some  man 
who  tramps  the  highway  with  his  pack  on  his  back.  His 
wife  and  his  children  were  left  years  ago  in  some  Eastern 
city  when  he  went  out  West  to  find  a  job.  The  job  which 
he  secured  did  not  keep  him  long  enough  for  him  to 


144  MEN  AND  THINGS 

become  a  resident  or  even  to  feel  settled  in  the  com- 
munity. The  place  in  which  he  slept  and  lived  was  a 
bunk-house,  dirty,  filthy,  and  filled  with  vermin ;  and 
the  food  he  had  to  eat  was  of  such  poor  quality  and 
so  wretchedly  cooked  that  he  would  not  I'.uve  eaten  it 
at  all  except  that  he  was  almost  famished  and  it  was  all 
that  he  could  get. 

The  communities  in  which  this  wanderer  of  the  road 
finds  himself  have  always  been  against  him.  The 
children  in  the  homes  are  told  that  if  they  are  not 
good  the  tramps  will  get  them.  He  looks  upon  the  law 
as  being  framed  especially  to  cause  him  inconvenience, 
and  the  officers  of  the  law  are  his  special  enemies.  The 
only  places  that  are  open  to  him  are  the  saloons,  the 
low  dives,  and  the  cheap  rooming  house.  The  work  he 
does  pays  him  fairly  good  wages  for  a  short  period ; 
but  when  he  is  paid  off,  with  the  money  in  his  pocket, 
there  is  nothing  for  him  to  do  but  to  get  drunk,  and 
this  he  proceeds  to  do;  nor  does  he  sober  up  until  every 
cent  is  gone.  Then  he  turns  to  another  job  if  he  can 
find  one.  Of  course,  if  he  would  save  his  money  and 
try  to  live  a  decent  life  he  might  be  able  to  get  on.  But 
as  the  pastor  of  a  church  in  southern  Washington  said : 
"  Down  in  my  parish,  which  is  in  the  woods,  I  have  in 
the  winter-time  about  1,500  men  to  look  after.  They 
are  a  rough,  hard  set  who  have  been  gathered  together 
through  the  employment  agencies  in  Seattle  and  Tacoma. 
They  believe  in  nothing  and  in  no  one.  They  are  made 
victims  of  every  possible  tyranny.  All  that  they  have 
is  their  job,  and  their  roll  of  blankets.  The  bunk-houses 
in  which  they  live  are  so  bad  that  a  self-respecting  dog 
would  not  stay  in  them.    The  food  they  eat  is  absolutely 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS       145 

rotten.  They  are  treated  like  cattle,  with  the  exception 
that  a  valuable  steer  will  receive  greater  protection,  for 
it  is  not  as  easy  to  get  another  good  working  steer  as 
it  is  to  get  another  hobo  to  take  the  place  of  the  worker 
that  is  lost.  When  these  drifters  are  paid  off  the  forces 
that  ruin  men  get  hold  of  them  immediately,  and  for 
the  next  few  days  they  spend  their  time  carousing  and 
getting  drunk.  The  lumber  companies  in  our  community 
are  making  money  fast,  but  they  are  destroying  men,  and 
scattering  dynamite  all  over  the  Northwest  that  threatens 
to  explode  in  a  social  upheaval  that  will  shake  the  whole 
western  part  of  the  United  States."  These  are  the 
words  of  a  sober-minded  Presbyterian  pastor  and  one 
who  has  no  sympathy  for  dangerous  social  doctrines.  He 
is  simply  speaking  out  of  his  heart  and  from  his  ex- 
perience. 

In  another  district  one  of  the  officials  of  a  mining  com- 
pany said  in  his  annual  report :  "  This  last  year  was  one 
of  unprecedented  success.  We  were  able  to  work  con- 
tinuously and  with  little  difficulty  because  we  had  at  all 
times  an  average  of  three  men  available  for  each  job. 
This  gave  us  workers  always  ready  to  our  hand."  As 
was  said  before,  the  war  changed  this  situation  very 
largely,  and  for  the  time  being  the  old  causes  which 
operated  to  increase  the  number  of  the  unemployed  have 
been  removed.  There  is  more  work  than  possibly  can 
be  done,  and  every  worker  has  his  job  cut  out  for  him. 
In  a  letter  I  have  just  received  the  writer  says,  "  The 
war  offers  the  right-minded  people  of  America  the  great- 
est opportunity  in  history.  We  can  correct  ancient 
wrongs  and  right  old  abuses  if  we  will  only  put  our 
minds  to  this  task."    But  there  are  certain  considerations 


146  MEN  AND  THINGS 

that  must  be  taken  into  account  if  we  would  remove  the 
causes  which  make  for  unemployment  and  discontent 
that  accompany  it.  The  community's  responsibility  for 
the  man  out  of  work  does  not  end  with  securing  a  job 
for  him,  nor  with  the  regularizing  of  industry,  nor  in 
supporting  labor  exchanges.  We  are  all  creatures  of 
circumstances  and  influenced  strongly  by  our  environ- 
ment. Therefore,  every  community  ought  to  provide 
adequate  means  for  recreation,  and  decent  places  where 
men  and  women  can  gather  under  wholesome  con- 
ditions. 

A  Man  and  His  Job.  One  of  the  slogans  of  the 
French  Revolution  was  "  The  right  to  work."  Man  has 
a  proprietary  right  in  his  job  and  it  is  the  only  property 
that  most  men  possess ;  when  he  loses  it  he  is  losing 
everything.  Some  years  ago  the  Idaho  legislature  passed 
a  law  which  guarantees  to  every  citizen  resident  in  the 
state  for  six  months,  ninety  days  public  work  a  year  at 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  usual  wage  if  married  or  having 
a  dependent,  and  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  usual  wage 
if  he  is  single.  Industry  has  never  been  organized  so  as 
to  include  the  best  interests  of  the  worker.  There  are 
hundreds  of  thousands  more  w^orkers  needed  in  the  good 
years  than  in  the  bad  years.  In  every  business  special 
calls  arise  for  more  workers  to  be  used  for  a  few  weeks 
or  a  few  days  at  a  time.  The  reserves  of  labor  necessary 
to  meet  these  seasonal  or  casual  demands  can  be  re- 
duced to  a  minimum,  providing  that  industry  is  regu- 
larized. As  it  is,  the  individual  worker  suffers  in  the 
machine,  or  system,  that  he  has  helped  to  create.  The 
modern  plan  of  organization  provides  for  managers, 
superintendents,   foremen,   clerks,   and   skilled   men — all 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS       147 

dependent  for  their  position  upon  the  group  of  ujiskilled 
men  or  semi-skilled  workers  at  the  bottom. 

It  is  obvious  that  we  cannot  legislate  so  that  lumber 
can  be  taken  out  of  the  forests  all  the  year  round,  nor 
can  the  casual  workers — farm  laborers,  fruit-,  and  hop- 
pickers  and  others — have  continual  employment.  What 
we  can  do,  however,  is  to  mobilize  the  labor  forces  of 
the  country  with  the  same  care  and  ability  that  we  have 
mobilized  our  national  army.  Through  a  chain  of  labor 
exchanges  extending  throughout  the  whole  nation  we 
can  bring  the  man  and  the  job  together.  When  the 
lumber  employees  in  the  woods  of  Washington  finish 
with  their  season  they  could  be  brought  down  into  Cali- 
fornia to  work  on  the  farms  and  in  the  fields;  and  then 
farther  down  as  the  fruit  ripens,  following  on  straight 
through  the  state.  In  the  autumn  they  could  be  brought 
back  again  to  take  their  places  in  the  woods. 

Another  thing  that  will  be  required  is  a  changed  attitude 
toward  the  men  at  work.  Just  as  long  as  we  assume  that 
the  workers  employed  at  these  tasks  are  worthless,  just 
so  long  will  they  try  to  live  down  to  their  reputation. 
A  Methodist  minister  in  Seattle  believed  that  the  average 
"  blanket  stiff  "  had  enough  good  in  him  to  respond  to 
right  treatment.  He  formed  a  cooperative  company  and 
bought  up  a  number  of  mills  in  the  state.  He  hired  a 
lot  of  the  commonest  workers  and  sent  them  out  to  the 
woods  to  work  in  these  mills.  Instead  of  attempting  to 
make  a  big  profit  on  the  labor  of  the  men,  he  allowed 
the  men  to  share  in  the  management  and  profits  of  the 
concern.  The  result  was  that  when  all  the  other  mills 
were  having  labor  troubles  he  was  able  to  work  right 
straight  along,  and  where  others  failed  he  made  a  big 


mS  men  and  things 

success.  The  reason  was  that  he  faced  the  issues 
squarely  and  fairly,  and  treated  the  men  as  he  would 
himself  like  to  he  treated. 

Sin  and  Inefficiency.  If  every  individual  was  nor- 
mal you  could  lay  the  full  responsibility  upon  him  and 
feel  that  when  he  failed  it  was  perfectly  just  that  he 
should  suffer,  and  we  would  not  need  to  worry  about 
the  conditions  under  which  people  labor.  But  sin  enters 
in  and  with  depravity  comes  inefficiency.  Business  can- 
not be  conducted  as  a  benevolent  enterprise.  A  man 
or  woman's  wage  must  be  earned  by  the  worker  or  else 
it  cannot  be  continued.  When  a  man  by  drink  or  other 
excesses  destroys  his  etificiency  it  is  impossible  for  him 
to  maintain  himself  in  a  position  that  pays  a  large  wage 
and  which  offers  steady  employment ;  so  he  drifts  into 
the  ranks  of  the  casual  workers.  He  is  unfit  for  regular 
work  by  temperament  and  habit;  but  he  is  willing  to 
work  for  a  short  time,  even  though  he  works  extremely 
hard.  In  dealing  with  the  problem  of  the  casual  worker 
then,  we  have  two  things  to  take  into  account :  First, 
we  must  regularize  industry  as  far  as  possible,  doing 
away  with  the  extraordinary  demands  for  certain  periods 
that  are  always  followed  by  long  periods  of  idleness.  In 
the  second  place,  we  must  in  some  way  lay  hold  of  the 
individual  man,  and  by  surrounding  him  with  the  best 
influences,  make  it  possible  for  him  to  live  a  life  of 
righteousness  and  sobriety.  In  other  words,  we  must  re- 
duce the  amount  of  seasonal  work  to  the  minimum  and 
increase  the  efficiency  of  the  worker  to  the  maximum. 

We  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  personal 
qualities  enter  in  to  complicate  this  question  and  make 
its  solution  more  difficult.    The  drunkenness  and  vice  of 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS        149 

the  individual  man  keep  him  in  a  position  where  it  is 
almost  impossible  for  him  to  be  helped  or  for  him  to 
help  himself.  The  man  out  of  work  degenerates.  His 
moral  fiber  is  weakened ;  he  becomes  susceptible  to  every 
evil.  The  process  by  which  many  a  criminal  has  been 
made  was  begun  in  the  hour  that  the  man  found  him- 
self thrown  out  of  employment.  Perhaps  it  was  not  his 
own  fault  in  the  first  place,  but  having  once  been  faced 
with  the  grim  alternative  of  seeing  his  family  sufifer  or 
of  yielding  to  some  criminal  act,  he  accepted  the  latter  as 
the  easiest  solution  of  the  problem  and  a  way  out  of  his 
difficulties. 

As  long  as  a  person  is  able  to  provide  the  necessities 
of  life  and  to  keep  himself  and  his  family  in  a  fair 
degree  of  efficiency  through  the  use  of  an  adequate 
amount  of  food,  shelter,  and  clothing,  the  chances  are 
that  he  will  develop  a  new  and  stronger  interest  in  the 
things  that  have  to  do  with  the  moral  and  social  side  of 
his  life.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  means  of  liveli- 
hood are  taken  away,  and  a  man  finds  himself  denied 
the  opportunity  of  work — which  means  that  the  things 
that  are  necessary  to  satisfy  the  most  fundamental  needs 
of  himself  and  his  family  cannot  be  secured — the  moral 
efifect  on  this  man,  his  family,  and  society  can  hardly 
be  exaggerated.  The  whole  structure  of  our  life  is  de- 
pendent upon  and  presupposes  regularity  of  employment. 
Not  only  does  the  fact  of  being  out  of  a  job  cut  ofif  a 
man's  means  of  livelihood,  but  the  psychological  efifect  of 
being  forced  to  live  without  working,  taken  together 
with  the  breaking  of  habits  acquired  by  years  of  in- 
dustry, puts  a  severe  strain  on  the  standards  of  morality 
which  have  been  built  up  by  long  and  painful  processes. 


150  MEN  AND  THINGS 

The  unemployed  man  may  react  in  one  of  two  ways:  he 
will  become  an  anarchist  and  spend  himself  in  fighting 
the  system  under  whose  injustice  he  suffers,  or  he  will 
give  up  the  struggle  and  become  a  drifter  upon  the  tides 
of  life,  a  social  outcast. 

The  Jungle.  The  best  thing  in  Upton  Sinclair's  story 
of  the  conditions  in  the  stock-yards  in  Chicago  is  the 
little  picture  he  gives  of  the  man  who  finally  in  despair 
gave  up  the  struggle  for  a  living,  got  on  a  train,  and  went 
out  as  far  west  as  the  train  would  carry  him.  When  he 
left  the  railroad  track  he  wandered  into  a  field  and  lay 
down  beside  a  stream.  Feeling  hungry  after  a  while 
he  arose  and  went  to  a  near-by  house  and  asked  for 
something  to  eat.  This  was  the  first  time  he  had  ever 
begged  but  the  woman  at  the  door  was  considerate  of 
him  and  he  got  his  food.  Then  he  returned  and  lay 
down  again  in  the  rich  grass  and  went  to  sleep.  When 
he  awoke  he  took  ofif  his  clothes  and  had  a  bath  in  the 
creek,  then  getting  out  of  the  water  he  dressed  himself 
and  again  lay  down ;  put  his  hands  behind  his  head  and 
looked  up  into  the  blue  sky.  All  of  a  sudden  it  occurred 
to  him  that  he  was  now  getting  more  out  of  life  than  he 
ever  had  before.  He  had  worked  and  worried  and  all 
he  ever  got  was  just  barely  enough  to  eat.  Now  he  had 
all  he  wanted  to  eat,  a  good  place  to  lie  and  dream,  the 
pure  air  of  heaven  fanning  his  face,  the  blue  sky  over 
his  head,  and  no  work  to  do.  "  Why  should  a  man  work, 
anyway?  What's  the  use?"  he  said.  This  philosophy 
made  him  a  tramp. 

Unemployment  must  be  recognized  as  an  evil  in  and 
of  itself.  For  the  man  out  of  work  meals  and  lodging 
should  be  secured.    The  church  has  done  much  in  this 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS       151 

regard.  The  soup-kitchens  have  been  so  much  an  ad- 
junct of  so  many  churches  that  some  of  our  evangelists 
have  come  to  refer  to  the  soup-kitchen  type  of  Chris- 
tianity as  being  a  recognized  type.  The  church  knows 
the  methods  for  charity  and  relief.  We  must  go  further 
than  this.  The  church's  program  for  the  casual  laborer 
should  include  the  education  of  the  community  regarding 
the  necessity  of  regularized  industry,  bringing  it  about 
so  that,  for  instance,  hats  will  be  made  not  only  when 
hats  are  needed  but  ahead  of  time.  And,  too,  there 
should  be  public  exchanges  for  employment  covering  the 
country  and  a  systematized  distribution  of  public  work. 

The  forming  of  a  comprehensive  plan  for  unemploy- 
ment insurance  is  another  step  forward.  Other  countries 
have  found  this  kind  of  insurance  a  wise  provision.  In- 
surance against  every  form  of  disaster  is  common.  We 
insure  a  perfect  day  for  a  parade.  We  insure  the  ships 
and  their  cargoes.  We  insure  our  lives.  Why  not 
insure  men  against  the  greatest  of  all  disasters  that  can 
befall  them,  the  loss  of  their  jobs?  We  need  not  worry 
about  the  probability  that  unemployment  insurance  is 
likely  to  take  away  the  initiative  of  the  men.  The 
danger  of  moral  deterioration  in  such  a  case  is  much 
less  than  that  which  actually  grows  out  of  the  periods  of 
unemployment. 

The  church  is  involved  in  the  whole  situation.  The 
men  dependent  on  their  wages  for  a  living  find  their 
means  of  livelihood  cut  off  and  they  naturally  turn  to  the 
church.  A  year  before  the  war  broke  out  the  unem- 
ployed in  several  cities  marched  into  the  churches  and 
demanded  help.  Some  of  the  churches  felt  that  they 
were  being  encroached  upon.    A  committee  in  one  church 


IS2  MEN  AND  THINGS 

forced  the  janitor  to  sweep  the  entire  building  with  a 
solution  of  formaldehyde,  for,  as  the  chairman  of  the 
committtee  said,  "  You  never  know  what  diseases  these 
dreadful  people  have."  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the 
churches  are  always  expected  to  do  more  than  it  is 
possible  for  them  to  do.  At  the  same  time  the  unem- 
ployed man  has  the  right  to  feel  that  if  the  church  is  a 
fundamental  institution  for  the  salvation  of  individuals, 
for  the  remaking  of  society,  and  the  reconstruction  of 
industrial  life,  it  cannot  evade  the  issue  nor  fail  to 
shoulder  its  responsibility.  To  open  the  church  as  a 
sleeping  place  and  to  feed  the  hungry  is  not  enough. 

The  War  and  the  Future.  The  world  war  has 
brought  us  face  to  face  with  a  new  task.  The  United 
States  and  Canada  are  at  present  the  producing  nations 
of  the  world.  The  Anti-Loafer  laws  now  being  carried 
through  are  cleaning  out  the  cabarets,  the  poolrooms, 
the  theaters,  and  other  places  where  idle  men  congre- 
gate. It  will  be  years  before  we  are  faced  with  the 
same  serious  situation  that  has  faced  us  in  the  past. 
However,  when  our  huge  armies  are  demobilized  and 
"  Johnny  comes  marching  home,"  there  will  be  a  new 
problem  which  will  have  to  be  considered.  How  can 
these  men  be  fitted  back  into  industrial  life  without  in- 
creasing the  number  of  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  work- 
ers to  such  a  degree  that  we  will  again  be  faced  with  a 
huge  army  of  unemployed? 

In  periods  of  unemployment  it  is  the  common  laborer 
who  suffers  most.  We  have  failed  to  realize  this.  And 
yet  he  makes  a  big  contribution  to  all  progress.  You 
cannot  build  a  bridge  without  him  and,  in  fact,  he  is 
used  in  every  enterprise.     Because  of  his  lack  of  skill, 


SEASONAL  LABOR  AND  CASUAL  WORKERS        153 

and  also  because  of  his  too  common  habits  of  Hving,  we 
call  these  men  tramps  and  hobos,  and  refer  to  them  in 
the  mass  as  common  laborers.  As  a  matter  of  fact  no 
man  who  does  any  work  is  a  common  man.  They  are 
ignorant  for  the  most  part ;  vicious  in  many  cases ;  some 
are  lazy,  drunken,  shiftless — all  of  these  things;  but  at 
the  same  time  they  are  the  men  who  are  cutting  down 
the  trees,  sawing  up  the  logs,  forming  them  into  rafts, 
floating  them  down  the  river,  and  putting  them  through 
the  mills.  They  are  the  men  who  are  loading  the  ships 
at  our  docks,  the  men  who  pick  hops  and  work  in  the 
harvest  fields ;  pick  the  fruit  and  do  the  thousand  other 
things  that  have  to  be  done  when  the  season  is  rights 
Besides  these,  there  are  the  thousands  of  women  who 
are  driven  at  top  speed  at  certain  periods  of  the  year 
through  the  unusual  demands  of  industry,  and  then  are 
thrown  out  of  employment  for  long  periods.  Ignorant, 
unknown,  friendless,  and  made  the  victims  of  industrial 
conditions  over  which  they  have  no  control,  they  seem 
of  so  little  importance  in  the  vast  system — as  merely  the 
lesser  cogs  in  the  lesser  wheels — that  very  few  know  of 
their  existence  except  when  something  goes  wrong  with 
the  cogs,  and  the  whole  machine  is  shut  down  because 
of  the  break.  But  without  them  the  machine  could  not 
run  at  all. 

The  casual  workers  are  the  true  servants  of  humanity, 
and  yet  they  are  the  ones  that  are  passed  by  unnoticed ; 
the  ones  that  rarely  if  ever  are  influenced  by  the  church. 
They  constitute  a  great  army  of  neglected  men  and 
women,  a  challenge  to  the  church,  a  menace  to  society, 
and  a  danger  to  our  commonwealth;  and  all  because 
they  are  neglected  and  unknown. 


CHAPTER  X 

The  World  of  Industrial  Women 

Any  one  who  reads  history  with  his  eyes  open  will  be 
impressed  with  the  fact  that  this  world  has  always  been 
considered  a  man's  world.  At  one  period  woman  was- 
denied  every  right ;  she  was  the  slave  of  man.  Rome 
and  Greece  treated  her  as  a  child.  Medieval  ages  found 
her  working  in  the  fields  and  supporting  large  families, 
while  her  husband  and  son  fought  for  rights  that  could 
never  be  hers.  The  familiar  figure  of  a  woman  and  an 
ox  yoked  together  and  driven  by  a  man  well  represents 
the  spirit  of  the  past.  The  Hebrew  rabbis  made  many 
proverbs  relating  to  woman's  condition :  "  When  Jehovah 
was  angry,  he  made  woman."  "  Woman  is  an  after- 
thought of  God."  "  A  man  of  straw  is  worth  more  than 
a  woman  of  gold."  The  statement  has  been  made  and 
repeated  times  out  of  number  that  woman's  sphere  is 
the  home.  This  statement  is  true,  but  not  unqualifiedly 
so;  in  fact,  home  is  no  more  a  woman's  place  than  it  is 
a  man's.  Home  is  based  upon  mutual  responsibility, 
consideration,  and  the  willingness  to  share  mutual  bur- 
dens. There  is  no  sense  in  the  old  saw,  "  Woman 
should  leave  her  home  but  three  times — when  she  is 
christened,  when  she  is  married,  and  when  she  is  buried." 
This  is  on  a  par  with  another  old  proverb :  "  Woman, 

155 


156  MEN  AND  THINGS 

the  cat,  and  the  chimney  should  never  leave  the  house." 
We  have  outlived  these  archaic  notions,  and  to-day,  while 
we  recognize  as  never  before  that  home  is  woman's  true 
sphere,  we  realize  that  home  is  the  man's  true  sphere 
also. 

The  home  is  the  foundation-stone  of  our  civilization. 
It  is  the  strength  and  safety  of  society.  Rome  fell  when 
her  homes  were  destroyed.  Public  morals  are  gaged  by 
the  morals  of  the  home.  In  the  face  of  the  divorce  court, 
with  its  incessant  grind  of  business,  it  is  time  to  raise  a 
voice  of  protest  against  the  spirit  of  careless  indilTerence 
which  views  the  home  as  a  mere  boarding-house,  and 
"  a  place  to  stay  away  from."  Who  is  the  chief  offender, 
man  or  woman?  The  woman's  club,  the  woman's  place 
in  politics,  woman's  interest  in  industry  and  in  reform 
have  all  been  cited  as  being  the  potent  forces  at  work 
destroying  the  home.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  the  man 
who  is  chiefly  responsible.  The  strength,  the  vigor,  and 
the  purity  of  the  American  home,  which  show  to-day  in 
the  splendid  type  of  soldiers  that  are  being  sent  across 
the  seas  to  fight  in  the  battle  for  democracy,  speak 
well  for  the  work  of  woman.  The  average  man  knows 
where  he  lives,  the  number  of  the  house,  and  the  name  of 
the  street  on  which  it  stands.  He  is  able  to  recognize 
his  children  usually  when  he  meets  them.  He  pays  the 
bills  and  takes  a  general  interest  in  the  appearance  and 
up-keep  of  the  establishment ;  but  when  it  comes  to 
bearing  his  share  of  the  heavy  burdens,  he  is  a  poor  part- 
ner in  the  concern.  The  wife  and  mother  is  the  home- 
maker.    We  know  how  well  she  has  done  her  part. 

Woman  and  Necessity.  Women  have  chosen  their 
work  because  of  necessity  as  well  as  because  of  oppor- 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  157 

tunity.  A  mother  of  two  boys  was  left  a  widow  with 
no  money.  Her  people  were  all  poor.  If  she  went  back 
home,  the  added  burden  would  be  an  injustice  to  her 
parents  and  would  work  hardship  upon  her  brothers  and 
sisters.  She  had  too  much  self-respect  to  take  this 
course.  She  knew  little  about  business  and  had  no  trade, 
but  she  found  work  in  a  store  and  by  hard  study  at 
night  and  close  application  became  an  expert  sales- 
woman. She  sent  her  boys  through  college.  One  of 
them  to-day  is  a  successful  lawyer  and  has  served  as 
senator  in  the  state  legislature.  The  other  is  a  practising 
physician  in  one  of  the  large  cities  of  the  Middle  West. 
Both  of  these  men  are  eminently  successful.  This  woman 
contributed  more  than  her  share  to  society  and  was 
cheerful  and  happy  in  her  work.  In  speaking  of  her 
one  of  the  partners  in  the  firm  where  she  was  employed 
said,  "  There  is  no  person  connected  with  this  firm  who 
has  created  such  a  wholesome  atmosphere  as  she  has 
done." 

A  little  black-eyed  boy  was  arrested  in  the  north  end 
of  Boston  and  sent  to  the  reform  school.  He  was  eleven 
years  old  and  had  become  the  leader  of  a  gang  of  boys 
who  had  been  robbing  show-windows.  His  mother  was 
a  Jewess;  his  father  had  deserted  her  and  left  three 
children,  one  just  a  baby  in  arms.  This  woman  could 
find  nothing  to  do  that  would  pay  her  enough  to  enable 
her  to  provide  actual  necessities  for  her  children.  The 
baby  died  and  in  the  distress  of  the  hour  the  mother  ap- 
pealed to  a  neighbor.  She  helped  her  financially  and 
found  a  position  for  her  in  one  of  the  millinery  shops 
of  the  city.  This  woman,  in  reality  a  widow,  had  been 
able  to  struggle  along  but  was  not  very  capable.     She 


158  MEN  AND  THINGS 

fought  her  battle  as  bravely  as  she  could  and  was  always 
cheerful,  but  it  was  almost  too  much  for  her  to  do  the 
earning  that  was  necessary.  Her  little  boy,  without 
proper  guardianship,  with  no  place  to  play  but  the 
streets,  got  into  trouble.  It  was  not  only  because  the 
mother  was  at  work  and  thus  unable  to  train  her  boy, 
that  this  new  trouble  came,  but  because  there  is  no  proper 
and  adequate  provision  made  for  women  left  in  her 
position. 

The  woman  of  the  family  is  always  the  most  over- 
burdened member.  She  has  serious  responsibilities  and 
the  heaviest  tasks.  When  she  is  left  with  the  care  of 
children,  it  is  inevitable  that  she  should  turn  to  industry 
for  her  own  and  her  children's  support.  Another  group 
of  workers  are  the  young  girls  who  go  into  work  for  a 
few  years  until  they  are  married.  Still  another  are  the 
young  women  who  feel  that  there  is  no  reason  why 
women  should  not  have  the  same  chance  to  make  a  place 
for  themselves  in  the  world  of  industry  that  is  accorded 
to  men.  We  must  come  to  believe  in  the  independence  of 
both  men  and  women  and  grant  to  each  the  right  to 
choose  his  or  her  own  place  and  work  in  life.  A  news- 
paper woman  in  Cincinnati  said :  "  I  determined  that  I 
had  qualifications  necessary  for  success  as  a  writer.  I 
went  to  school  and  studied  hard  with  the  intention  of  be- 
coming a  reporter.  When  I  received  my  diploma,  I  was 
as  proud  as  any  member  of  the  class,  but  not  half  as 
happy  on  that  day  as  I  was  a  week  later  when  I  received 
my  first  assignment  from  the  city  editor  of  a  paper  that 
had  employed  me  '  on  trial.'  I  have  succeeded  and  am 
happy  in  my  work."  Why  should  any  one  attempt  to 
limit  this  woman  in  her  vocation?     She  has  chosen  and 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  159 

chosen  well.  She  is  making  her  contribution  and  it  is 
just  as  important  as  that  made  by  thousands  of  the  best 
men  in  similar  positions. 

In  War  Time.  Since  the  war  began  nearly  a  mil- 
lion and  a  quarter  additional  women  have  been  brought 
into  the  industries  of  Great  Britain,  This  is  an  increase 
of  nearly  forty  per  cent,  of  the  number  employed  in  July, 
1914.  Moreover,  the  percentage  of  the  increase  is  rising. 
In  France  we  find  the  same  situation.  In  the  United 
States  as  the  war  goes  on  larger  numbers  of  women  are 
taking  places  as  wage-earners.  Women  are  replacing 
men  in  running  elevators  in  all  public  buildings,  working 
in  hotels,  as  conductors  on  street-car  lines,  guards  on  sub- 
way trains,  ticket  sellers,  baggage  agents,  and  crossing 
tenders  in  the  railroad  service.  Thousands  more  are 
going  into  the  different  forms  of  agricultural  work.  Be- 
sides these  new  pursuits,  women  are  running  the  lathes 
in  the  shops  and  factories,  while  thousands  are  employed 
in  the  making  of  munitions.  Probably  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  for  every  man  who  has  gone  to  the  front  at  the  pres- 
ent time  there  is  a  woman  in  America  who  is  doing  the 
man's  work. 

A  study  of  the  conditions  shows  that  nearly  all  the 
work  done  by  women  in  the  warring  nations  is  unskilled 
or  semi-skilled.  There  are  not  very  many  opportunities 
for  advancement  and  most  of  the  women  feel  that  they 
are  simply  working  in  an  emergency;  hence  there  is  not 
a  chance  of  their  becoming  efficient  as  skilled  workers. 
The  ability  of  these  workers  is  remarkable,  especially 
when  we  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  most  of 
the  women  had  no  training  before  the  war.  In  the 
working  of  automatic  machines  where  technical  skill  is 


i6o  MEN  AND  THINGS 

of  less  value  than  carefulness,  attention,  and  dexterity, 
women  are  much  more  efficient  than  men.  In  a  report 
made  upon  the  conditions  in  the  employment  of  women 
in  Great  Britain  during  the  war,  is  this  statement  con- 
cerning the  efficiency  of  women:  "  In  regularity,  applica- 
tion, accuracy,  and  finish  women  have  proved  very  sat- 
isfactory." 

Quality  of  Work.  In  the  work  that  women  are  able 
to  do,  they  learn  quickly,  more  so  than  the  men  em- 
ployed in  the  same  places ;  and  they  increase  the  output 
above  what  was  usual  with  the  men  workers.  The  ex- 
perience in  the  United  States  in  pre-war  times  proves  the 
efficiency  of  the  women  workers.  The  treasury  depart- 
ment employs  women  for  the  detecting  of  counterfeits  in 
paper  money.  After  a  bad  bill  has  gone  through  half 
a  dozen  banks,  and  has  been  subjected  to  the  closest 
scrutiny,  and  yet  has  not  been  detected,  these  experi- 
enced women  can  detect  it  by  its  "  feel.''  According  to 
statistics  color-blindness  is  much  more  prominent  in  men 
than  in  women.  A  noted  educator  is  authority  for  the 
statement  that  in  the  public  schools  four  per  cent,  of 
all  the  boys  are  color-blind,  while  only  one  tenth  of  one 
per  cent,  of  the  girls  are  color-blind.  It  is  now  gen- 
erally conceded  that  the  sight  is  the  most  intelligent  of 
all  the  senses.  The  average  woman,  no  matter  what  she 
undertakes,  will  work  harder  to  make  herself  proficient 
than  will  the  average  man.  One  result  of  so  many 
women  entering  into  industry  is  to  raise  the  grade  of  em- 
ployment and  make  the  workers  more  competent.  It 
may  not  seem  that  this  would  be  the  result  at  first,  but 
that  rather  the  reverse  would  be  true.  It  was  the  enter- 
ing of   women   into   the   ranks   of   the   physicians   that 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  i6i 

changed  the  meager  ten  or  eleven  months'  course  of  the 
medical  college  into  the  four  years'  course  that  is  re- 
quired to-day. 

There  never  has  been  a  time  when  women  were  not 
in  industry.  When  the  loom  left  the  home,  women  fol- 
lowed it  into  the  factory.  More  than  eight  million 
women  and  girls  were  employed  in  gainful  occupations 
outside  the  home  in  the  United  States  just  before  the 
war  began.  This  number  has  been  increased,  yet  it  is 
not  out  of  proportion  to  the  number  of  women  in  the 
country.  It  is  logical  that  women  should  continue  in 
industry.  A  woman  must  live,  and  for  her  living  a 
certain  amount  of  money  is  required.  This  money  must 
be  given  to  her  or  she  must  earn  it ;  not  only  that,  but 
the  women  of  to-day  will  demand  the  right  to  do  some 
constructive  work  in  the  midst  of  the  new  conditions 
under  which  we  live. 

The  Field  of  Women's  Activity.  Certain  vocations 
are  closed  to  women.  All  those  occupations  which  de- 
mand great  physical  strength  belong  of  right  to  man. 
The  heavy  work  in  the  steel-mills,  much  of  the  work  in 
constructural  iron  trades,  wood-work,  bridge-building, 
stone  masonry,  heavy  carpentry,  mining,  smelting,  re- 
fining minerals,  and  the  heavy  work  of  shoveling  and 
lifting  are  men's  tasks.  Many  of  the  trades  are  also 
closed  to  women,  because  in  these  trades  it  takes  at  least 
five  years'  apprenticeship  before  a  man  is  able  to  earn 
a  salary.  Women  do  not  care  to  enter  into  such  a  long 
apprenticeship.  They  will  not  give  five  years  to  non- 
productive work,  for  the  great  majority  of  women  have 
not  accepted  industrial  work  in  preference  to  married 
life.    If  the  right  man  comes  along,  the  average  woman 


i62  MEN  AND  THINGS 

would  feel  that  as  a  home-maker  cooperating  with  her 
husband  she  could  accomplish  more  than  by  continuing 
alone  as  an  industrial  unit.  Of  this  attitude  Miss  Alice 
Henry  says,  "  Give  her  fairer  wages,  shorten  her  hours 
of  toil,  let  her  have  a  chance  of  a  good  time,  of  a  happy 
girlhood,  and  an  independent,  normal  woman  will  be  free 
to  make  a  real  choice  of  the  best  man.  She  will  not  be 
tempted  to  accept  passively  any  man  who  offers  himself, 
just  in  order  to  escape  from  a  life  of  unbearable  toil, 
monotony,  and  deprivation."  ^ 

A  Woman's  Chances  in  a  Man's  World.  Woman  is 
an  organic  part  of  society.  This  means  that  she  is  a 
part  of  every  one  of  the  organizations  that  enter  into 
modern  society.  She  has  always  had  a  part  in  literature. 
Julia  Ward  Howe  in  writing  the  "  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic,"  contributed  not  only  to  our  wealth  of  song, 
but  made  a  direct  contribution  toward  the  winning  of  the 
freedom  of  the  slaves.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  also  gave 
her  remarkable  aid  to  the  same  cause.  George  Eliot 
was  one  of  the  great  novelists.  In  the  field  of  reform 
Frances  E.  Willard  takes  first  place.  Maud  Balling- 
ton  Booth,  the  "  little  mother  "  of  thousands  of  prison- 
ers, is  making  a  new  world  for  the  men  into  which  they 
may  enter  when  they  leave  the  penitentiary  door.  It  is 
the  Pilgrim  mothers  rather  than  the  Pilgrim  fathers 
who  ought  to  be  given  the  credit  for  New  England's  con- 
tribution to  national  history.  All  other  attempts  to  colo- 
nize failed  because  the  adventurers  in  their  quest  for 
gold  and  fortunes  did  not  bring  their  women  with  them. 
Anna  the  prophetess  of  old  in  the  temple  and  Susan  B. 
Anthony  in  the  suffrage  cause  each  represent  an  age  and 

'Alice  Henry,  The  Trade  Union  Woman. 


I'li.ss     llhisliMtiry    .S.'i\Ci'. 

In  the  army  of  laborers  tlic  sirl  and  tlie  woman  arc  drafted  as 
well  as  the  bny  and  the  man. 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  163 

an  enthusiasm  and  an  ability  to  persist  until  results  are 
achieved. 

Now  we  have  a  new  situation.  Many  people  view 
with  concern  the  increasing  numbers  of  women  that  are 
employed  in  gainful  occupations  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada  at  the  present  time.  The  employment  of 
women  presents  not  one  question  but  many.  The  prob- 
lem that  is  familiar  to  nearly  all  housekeepers — that  of 
securing  domestic  service — presses  upon  our  attention  the 
number  of  women  employed  in  this  kind  of  work.  Do- 
mestic service  engages  the  largest  number  of  women 
outside  of  the  home.  Women  are  now  doing  everything 
that  men  have  done,  and  in  most  cases  are  doing  the 
work  just  as  well,  while  in  many  occupations  they  show 
an  efficiency  that  men  have  never  achieved.  Charles 
Kingsley's  phrase,  "  For  men  must  work  and  women  must 
weep,"  did  very  well  in  that  age,  but  under  the  economic 
conditions  under  which  we  are  living  to-day,  the  contrast 
he  makes  is  absolutely  inappropriate.  The  question  of 
work  and  workers  has  been  settled.  In  the  army  of  labor- 
ers the  girl  and  the  woman  are  drafted  as  well  as  the  boy 
and  man. 

Before  the  great  war  began  there  was  in  the  United 
States  about  one  woman  worker  for  every  five  men. 
This  number  has  been  greatly  increased.  Of  the  three 
hundred  specific  occupations  the  census  of  1900  enum- 
erated there  were  only  two  occupations  in  which  women 
were  not  engaged  in  some  capacity.  The  census  of  1910 
gives  a  larger  number  of  occupations,  and  not  one  in 
which  women  are  not  employed.  Women  are  on  the 
street-car  lines  and  are  line  women  and  telegraphers, 
riveters,  blacksmiths,  steam-boiler  makers,  brass  workers, 


i64  MEN  AND  THINGS 

and  foundry  workers.  In  fact,  no  work  seems  too  hard 
or  too  heavy  for  some  woman  to  make  a  success  of  it. 
From  the  time  of  the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin,  which 
brought  more  women  into  the  world  of  industry  than 
any  other  one  machine,  to  the  present  day  we  have  the 
story  of  women  and  men  gaining  larger  visions,  receiv- 
ing better  wages,  and  together  making  the  world  a  more 
habitable  place  for  us  all. 

Justice  to  Women  Workers.  It  would  be  impossible 
for  us  to  manage  business  as  we  do  to-day  without  the 
efficient  help  of  secretaries,  stenographers,  telegraph- 
operators,  and  other  office  assistants,  nearly  all  of  whom 
are  women.  The  question  arises  as  to  what  treatment  a 
woman  should  receive.  For  some  reason,  when  a  woman 
does  a  piece  of  work,  no  matter  how  well  it  is  done,  or 
howsoever  efficient  she  becomes,  we  have  a  feeling  that 
she  should  receive  less  pay  for  the  same  work  than  a 
man  would  receive.  There  are  many  reasons  why  women 
are  suffering  from  this  injustice.  One  arises  from  the 
conditions  which  bring  a  large  number  of  women  into 
industry. 

A  number  of  salesgirls,  some  stenographers,  and  a 
great  many  helpers  in  different  industrial  firms  live  at 
home  and  work  for  what  is  known  as  pin-money.  They 
are  not  primarily  dependent  upon  their  wage.  The 
money  comes  in  handy  and  they  can  use  it  to  good  ad- 
vantage. They  are  not  forced  to  work,  hence,  they  can 
and  will  accept  a  lower  wage  than  if  they  were  abso- 
lutely dependent  upon  what  they  earn.  "  I  receive  $3.50 
a  week  for  clerking  in  this  store,"  said  a  bright  girl  in 
Chicago,  "  and  I  don't  take  anything  from  the  floor- 
walkers.    Whenever  they  try  to  order  me  around,  they 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  163 

have  got  another  guess  coming.  I  don't  have  to  work, 
and  I  let  them  know  it.  They  are  mighty  hicky  to  get 
me."  This  was  all  right  for  this  girl,  but  the  fact  that 
she  was  situated  so  that  a  salary  of  $3.50  a  week  satis- 
fied her  made  it  possible  for  the  firm  to  set  that  as  a 
standard  wage,  and  other  girls  who  did  have  to  take 
bossing  from  the  floor-walkers,  and  were  dependent  upon 
their  wages,  were  forced  to  accept  what  the  firm  offered. 
A  friend  of  mine  who  has  an  interest  in  a  dry-goods 
store  holds  that  the  average  girl  is  not  worth  more  than 
$6  a  week  because  she  works  simply  to  tide  her  over  a 
few  years  until  she  gets  married.  He  said,  "  I  cannot 
afford  to  pay  more  than  $6  because  my  competitors  pay 
this  same  rate  to  their  clerks ;  and  if  I  am  going  to  sell 
goods  I  have  to  take  into  consideration  the  conditions 
in  the  trade." 

Another  thing  that  enters  into  the  situation  is  the  fact 
that  women  workers  have  never  been  as  well  organized 
as  men.  The  points  upon  which  the  trade-union  move- 
ment concentrates  are  the  raising  of  wages,  the  shortening 
of  hours,  the  diminution  of  seasonal  work,  the  regula- 
tion of  piece-work  (with  its  resultant  speeding  up),  the 
maintaining  of  sanitary  conditions,  the  guarding  of  un- 
safe machinery,  the  making  of  laws  against  child  labor 
which  can  be  enforced,  the  abolition  of  taxes  for  power 
and  for  working  materials  (such  as  thread  and  needles), 
and  of  unfair  fines  for  petty  or  unproved  offenses.  Miss 
Henry  tells  of  a  case  in  a  non-union  trade  which  sug- 
gests the  reasons  which  make  organization  a  necessity. 
"  Twenty-one  years  ago  in  the  bag  and  hemp  factories  of 
St.  Louis,  girl  experts  turned  out  460  yards  of  material 
in  a  twelve-hour  day,  the  pay  being  24  cents  per  bolt, 


i66  MEN  AND  THINGS 

measuring  from  60  to  66  yards.  These  girls  earned 
$1.84  per  day.  Four  years  ago  a  girl  could  not  hold  her 
job  under  1,000  yards  in  a  ten-hour  day.  The  fastest 
possible  worker  can  turn  out  only  1,200  yards,  and  the 
price  has  dropped  to  15  cents  a  hundred  yards.  The  old 
rate  of  24  cents  per  bolt  used  to  net  $1.80  to  a  very  quick 
worker.  The  new  rate  to  one  equally  competent  is  but 
$1.50. 

"The  workers  have  to  fill  a  shuttle  every  minute  and 
a  half  or  two  minutes.  This  necessitates  the  strain  of 
constant  vigilance,  as  the  breaking  of  the  thread  causes 
unevenness,  and  for  this  mishap  operators  are  laid  oflf 
for  two  or  three  days.  The  operators  are  at  such  a 
tension  that  they  not  only  stand  all  day,  but  may  not 
even  bend  their  knees.  The  air  is  thick  with  lint  which 
the  workers  inhale.  The  throat  and  eyes  are  terribly 
affected,  and  it  is  necessary  to  work  with  the  head  bound 
up,  and  to  comb  the  lint  from  the  eyebrows.  The  pro- 
prietors have  to  retain  a  physician  to  attend  the  workers 
every  morning,  and  medicine  is  supplied  free,  as  an 
accepted  need  for  every  one  so  engaged.  One  year  is 
spent  in  learning  the  trade ;  and  the  girls  last  at  it  only 
from  three  to  four  years  afterward.  Some  of  them 
enter  marriage,  but  many  of  them  are  thrown  on  the 
human  waste-heap.  One  company  employs  nearly  1,000 
women,  so  that  a  large  number  are  affected  by  these 
vile,  inhuman  conditions.  The  girls  in  the  trade  are 
mostly  Slovaks,  Poles,  and  Bohemians,  who  have  not 
been  long  in  America.  In  their  inexperience  they  count 
$1.50  as  good  wages,  although  gained  at  ever  so  great  a 
physical  cost."  ^    These  wretched  conditions  are  not  un- 

*  Alice  Henry,  The  Trade  Union  Woman, 


WOME^  IN  INDUSTRY  167 

common.  Thousands  of  women  who  are  forced  to  earn 
their  living  and  are  contributing  their  full  share  toward 
making  America  the  great  commercial  power  she  is  to- 
day are  laboring  under  just  such  injustice. 

Women  and  Unions.  Most  of  the  union  leaders 
have  viewed  with  alarm  the  increasing  number  of  women 
that  are  being  drafted  into  industry  each  year.  The 
reasons  for  this  are  clear  to  all  who  know  the  history  of 
trade  unionism  and  know  how  the  workmen  greet  the 
coming  into  industry  of  any  new  group  of  available 
workers.  The  war  has  made  labor  conditions  chaotic; 
and  the  shortage  in  certain  lines  has  given  opportunity 
for  the  employers  to  substitute  women  for  men,  because 
women  for  the  most  part  are  economically  defenseless 
and,  therefore,  can  be  secured  for  a  lower  wage  than 
men.  Women  are  more  easily  exploited  than  men  be- 
cause they  have  not  been  so  long  in  the  industrial  strug- 
gle with  its  keen  competition.  They  are  less  able  to 
appreciate  the  value  of  cooperation  for  mutual  protec- 
tion. One  union  leader  said,  "  I  look  upon  the  large 
number  of  women  who  are  being  drafted  into  industry 
as  a  real  menace  to  the  women  themselves,  to  society, 
and  to  labor."  The  situation  presents  itself  something 
like  this :  Organized  labor  has  a  veiy  close  relation  in 
its  feeling  to  all  labor  and  to  all  the  different  groups  of 
workingmen  organized  and  unorganized ;  and  it  re- 
gards an  injustice  to  an  unorganized  worker  as  being 
indirectly  an  injustice  to  itself.  The  reason  for  this 
sympathy  is  of  course  primarily  selfish,  for  the  union 
man  knows  that  if  his  fellow  laborers  in  another 
trade  are  unprotected,  and  an  injustice  is  practised 
upon  them,  it    will    be    only    a    short    time    until    the 


i68  MEN  AND  THINGS 

same  thing  will  be  attempted  upon  the  organized 
worker.  If  women  go  into  competition  with  men  under 
present  conditions  they  will  be  employed  rather  than 
men  because  they  can  be  secured  for  a  lower  wage.  Look, 
for  instance,  at  some  of  the  cotton-mills  in  the  South, 
where  the  whole  family,  father,  mother,  and  two  or  three 
children  all  work,  and  the  total  wage  of  the  family  group 
amounts  to  just  about  what  is  considered  a  living  wage. 
The  attitude  of  organized  labor  toward  women  work- 
ers is  about  the  same  as  its  attitude  toward  cheap  for- 
eign labor,  and  the  reason  for  the  feeling  is  due  wholly 
to  the  fear  that  the  women  brought  into  the  industry 
will  lower  wages  and  bring  down  the  standard  of  living 
of  the  entire  group.  The  attitude  is  dictated  as  a  defense 
measure  in  behalf  of  the  standard  of  living  for  all.  The 
attitude  of  union  labor  is  indefensible  except  as  a  meas- 
ure of  self-defense.  It  should  be  said,  however,  that 
union  labor  is  not  a  unit  in  this  attitude.  There  are  a 
large  number  of  broad-minded  men  in  the  ranks  of  the 
organized  workers  who  recognize  present  conditions, 
and  see  that  it  is  inevitable  that  larger  numbers  of 
women  shall  be  employed  in  gainful  occupations  in 
the  future.  Instead  of  putting  up  the  bars  and  attempt- 
ing to  keep  women  out,  those  who  have  given  the  mat- 
ter most  thought  are  putting  forth  their  efforts  to  or- 
ganize the  workers.  The  Women's  National  Trade 
Union  League,  of  which  Mrs.  Raymond  Robbins  is  the 
president,  has  rendered  great  service  for  the  women 
workers  of  the  nation.  Legislation  has  been  secured  and 
minimum  wages  established  in  some  places.  But  best 
of  all  this  movement  has  been  teaching  the  women  work- 
ers the  necessity  of  organization  in  order  that  they  and 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  169 

Other  women  may  be  protected,  and  that  the  women 
drafted  into  industry  may  not  become  a  menace  to  the 
American  standard  of  living  which  has  been  built  up  at 
such  great  pains  and  through  such  toilsome  efforts. 
This  league  voices  the  protest  of  American  working 
women  against  the  notoriously  bad  conditions  surround- 
ing the  work  of  women  and  children. 

Women  have  always  been  taken  into  some  of  the  men's 
unions,  but  the  growth  of  certain  trades — such  as  glove- 
making,  coat-  and  suit-making,  shirt,  collar,  and  shirt- 
waist manufacturing — employing  women  almost  exclu- 
sively made  such  cooperation  impossible.  These  trades 
were  organized  after  much  effort  on  the  part  of  the  lead- 
ers of  the  Women's  National  Trade  Union  League. 
This  organization  has  conducted  several  strikes  in  big 
cities  in  the  last  ten  years,  and  in  nearly  every  case  has 
won.  Girls  strike  just  as  hard  as  men.  They  have 
more  persistence ;  are  more  willing  to  sacrifice  and  suf- 
fer and  generally  show  more  intelligence  in  conducting 
their  affairs.  They  make  good  pickets  and  because  of 
their  aggressive,  earnest  work  are  successful.  Their  re- 
sources are  not  so  great  and  when  they  are  out  of  work 
they  have  more  difficulty  in  getting  temporary  jobs. 
Another  important  feature  of  their  problems  is  that  the 
supply  of  non-union  workers  to  take  their  places  is 
almost  unlimited. 

Women  and  the  Church.  Women  in  all  the  Chris- 
tian ages  have  recognized  the  church  as  their  friend  and 
in  appreciation  of  what  it  has  done  they  have  worked 
unceasingly  for  its  success.  There  is  a  big  task  before 
the  church  in  behalf  of  women,  and  especially  in  the 
interests  of  the  women  laborers  in  industry.     There  is 


170  MEN  AND  THINGS 

the  opportunity  for  the  church  groups  to  influence  the 
individual  employer  to  improve  conditions  pending  regu- 
lation by  the  community.  In  addition  to  the  question  of 
wages  and  hours  the  demands  of  the  churches  must  in- 
volve the  abolition  of  the  speeding-up  process  by  which, 
under  the  piece-work  system,  the  amount  of  work  re- 
quired for  a  specified  task  is  constantly  increased.  The 
fastest  worker  is  used  as  the  pace-maker,  so  that  the 
wage  of  the  slower  worker  continually  drops,  and  the 
amount  of  work  done  by  the  fastest  workers  con- 
tinually increases.  The  law  may  specify  a  minimum 
wage,  but  it  cannot  specify  the  amount  of  work  to  be 
done  in  each  particular  trade. 

Here  is  where  the  church  groups  must  cooperate  with 
the  working  women  themselves,  and  must  assist  them  to 
secure  some  voice  in  determining  the  conditions  under 
which  they  shall  work.  Legislation  alone  can  never 
achieve  the  standards  now  demanded  in  common  by 
the  church  and  social  workers ;  nor  can  they  be  realized 
by  the  benevolence  of  employers.  If  the  health  and 
morals  of  the  community  are  not  to  suffer  from  the 
employment  of  women  in  industry,  it  can  be  accomplished 
only  by  the  cooperation  of  working  women  to  this  end. 
The  church  must  educate  its  community  to  think  in 
terms  of  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number.  And 
this  means  that  we  must  come  to  realize  more  than  ever 
that  the  strength  of  the  childhood  of  the  nation  is  de- 
pendent upon  the  home ;  and  that  the  strength  of  the 
home  is  dependent  upon  the  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  welfare  of  the  women  of  the  nation.  It  is  pos- 
sible for  the  church  to  accomplish  much  by  arousing 
purchasers  to  the  necessity  of  using  their  conscience  in 


WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  171 

their  shopping.  Local  white-lists  of  stores  and  factories 
which  meet  the  Consumers'  League  conditions  can  be 
made  by  representative  groups.  The  Consumers'  League 
label  and  the  labels  of  the  organizations  affiliated  in  the 
Women's  Trade  Union  League  should  be  demanded. 
They  will  protect  the  conscience  of  the  buyer  and  as- 
sure him  that  his  comfort  is  not  being  secured  at  the 
cost  of  strain  upon  the  health  and  morals  of  the  women 
of  his  city  or  nation.  It  is  for  the  churches  to  make 
this  fight  for  the  working  women  a  community  issue. 
It  is  a  religious  issue,  and  the  pulpit  may  help  to  realize 
these  religious  values  in  the  lives  of  the  working  women. 
When  we  pray  "  God  save  the  people,"  it  would  be 
well  for  us  to  use  our  heads  in  our  prayers,  and  to  re- 
member that  the  people  will  perish  if  we  do  not  protect 
the  womanhood  which  is  the  foundation  of  the  home. 
God  cannot  save  the  people  if  we  destroy  the  mothers 
of  men. 


CHAPTER  XI 
The  World  of  the  Child  Workers 

"  No,  we  can't  go  to  school,  much  as  we'd  like  to. 
You  see,  school  holds  only  a  few  weeks  each  year  and 
we  have  to  help  with  the  tobacco." 

This  was  the  reply  of  a  twelve-year-old  girl  to  a  ques- 
tion regarding  her  school  work.  She  also  informed  the 
visitor  that  helping  with  the  tobacco  meant  doing  every- 
thing that  was  necessary  to  be  done  from  the  time  the 
plants  are  set  out  until  the  leaves  are  finally  cured.  While 
the  conversation  was  going  on,  this  girl's  eight-year-old 
sister  came  out  of  the  barn,  and  the  visitor  said : 

"  Do  you  help  with  the  tobacco,  too  ?  " 

"  Yep,"  was  her  reply,  "  I  jest  now  been  out  wormin' 
it." 

When  asked  what  she  meant  by  that  she  was  utterly 
amazed  that  any  one  could  be  so  ignorant  as  not  to  know 
that  tobacco  had  to  be  wormed.  To  display  her  efficiency, 
she  showed  a  tomato-can  nearly  full  of  worms  that  she 
had  just  brought  in  from  the  tobacco-field.  To  prove  the 
quality  of  her  catch,  she  held  up  a  nice  fat  one  and  even 
offered  to  let  the  visitor  take  it  if  he  so  desired. 

The  Burley  tobacco  is  made  into  plugs  for  chewing 
and  is  used  in  pipes.  It  is  grown  very  extensively  in 
central  Kentucky.  It  was  on  one  of  these  tobacco  farms 
that  this  conversation  took  place.     The  worm  that  in- 

173 


174  MEN  AND  THINGS 

fests  the  plant  looks  like  a  caterpillar  with  a  smooth 
skin.  A  small  boy  described  it  as  a  "  bald-headed  cater- 
pillar." It  has  huge  eyes  and  is  twice  the  size  of  the 
woolly  caterpillar.  These  creatures  crawl  all  over  the 
plants,  and,  because  of  their  size  and  their  voracious 
appetite,  unless  they  are  closely  looked  after,  soon  de- 
stroy all  the  leaves.  The  plants  cannot  be  sprayed  with 
poison  for  obvious  reasons.  The  only  prevention  is  to 
have  the  worms  picked  off  by  hand.  This  work  falls  to 
the  lot  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  district.  It  is  not  a 
very  congenial  task,  and  it  is  hard  work  for  the  children 
stooping  and  raising  the  leaves  as  they  toil  all  day  in 
the  burning  sun.  The  little  girls  wore  their  sunbonnets 
tied  under  their  chins  but  pushed  back  on  their  necks. 
They  were  barefooted  and  carried  a  tin  can  in  one  hand 
to  hold  the  worms.  They  followed  down  each  row  peer- 
ing under  the  leaves  and  picking  ofif  the  worms. 
"  Wormin'  time"  came  just  at  the  period  when  they 
ought  to  have  been  in  school,  but  the  tobacco  had  to  be 
saved. 

The  Beet-Fields.  There  is  a  settlement  of  Russians 
near  Hillings,  Montana.  The  fathers,  mothers,  and  all 
the  children  work  in  the  beet-fields.  The  work  com- 
mences early  in  the  spring  when  the  beets  have  to  be 
thinned  out.  Apparently  no  child  is  too  young  to  pull 
beets.  I  saw  boys  in  the  beet-fields  hoeing  and  the  hoe- 
handle  was  almost  as  big  as  their  little  bare  legs.  When 
the  crop  is  ready  to  harvest,  the  dirt  is  loosened  about 
the  beets  and  then  they  are  pulled  out  by  hand.  The 
dirt  is  knocked  ofiF  the  roots  and  they  are  thrown  to  one 
side  so  that  when  a  row  of  beets  has  been  pulled  they 
look  like  hay  in  a  windrow.     This  work  is  heavy  and 


THE  CHILD  WORKERS  I75 

hard,  for  a  beet  will  average  from  seven  to  eight  pounds, 
and  by  the  time  a  person  has  lifted  them  all  day  long 
from  five  in  the  morning  to  seven  at  night,  he  has  lifted 
several  tons.  After  the  beets  are  laid  in  rows  they  have 
to  be  topped  with  a  strong,  broad-bladed  knife  with  a 
hook  at  the  end.  The  beet  is  held  against  the  knee  of 
the  worker,  and  with  one  stroke  of  the  knife  the  top  is 
severed  from  the  root.  In  the  beet-fields  the  beauties 
of  nature  are  reduced  to  a  dull  round  of  production. 
According  to  a  report  made  by  the  National  Labor  Com- 
mittee there  are  five  thousand  children  working  in  the 
beet-fields.  "  Money  and  not  children  is  evidently  the 
chief  concern  of  these  families  "is  the  testimony  given  in 
the  report  made  by  Miss  Ruth  Mclntire.  She  says : 
"  An  eleven-year-old  girl  was  found,  who  with  her  sister 
aged  seven,  was  kept  out  of  school  to  work  in  the  beet- 
field,  although  her  family  boasted  that  they  had  made 
ten  thousand  dollars  last  year  from  their  farm.  A  cer- 
tain parent  declared  to  a  school  principal  that  his  boy 
was  worth  $i,ooo  for  work  during  the  beet  season.  If 
he  went  to  school  he  was  nothing  but  an  expense."  ^ 

Mills,  Factories,  and  Workshops.  With  the  develop- 
ment of  the  cotton-mill  there  was  opened  up  a  wide  field 
for  the  exploitation  of  childhood.  The  spools  full  of 
thread  have  to  be  put  on  the  machine  and  the  empty 
spools  removed.  Boys  and  girls  of  six  and  eight  years 
can  do  this  work  even  better  than  a  grown  man  or 
woman.  One  worker  in  a  mill  can  take  care  of  several 
machines,  and  if  there  is  a  child  to  care  for  the  spools  the 
machines  can  be  run  very  economically,  and  the  profits 

*"  Children  in  Agriculture,"  by  Ruth  Mclntire,  a  pamphlet 
published  by  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee. 


176  MEN  AND  THINGS 

will  be  large.  Children  are  used  in  works  and  on  the 
breakers  in  the  coal-mines.  In  one  of  the  silver-mills 
in  the  Cceur  d'Alene  mining  district  boys  stand  on  the 
platform  alongside  the  incline  down  which  the  ore  rushes 
in  a  ceaseless  stream  going  into  the  breakers.  As  it 
passes  down  their  quick  eyes  detect  the  rocks,  and  espe- 
cially the  hard  round  stones  that  get  mixed  up  with  ore. 
These  they  pick  out  and  throw  to  one  side.  This  is  a 
boy's  job.  He  can  do  it  better  than  a  man.  Thus  all 
modern  processes  of  industry  seem  to  be  at  work  to 
make  easy  the  utilization  of  the  immature  and  the  un- 
skilled. 

Why  Child  Labor.  Because  the  machine  produces  so 
much  it  is  possible  to  pay  the  child  worker  a  wage  that 
seems  large  in  comparison  to  what  a  man  would  re- 
ceive. The  father  of  a  boy  who  worked  in  one  of  the 
cotton-mills  said,  "  I  can  make  a  dollar  and  seventy-five 
cents  a  day ;  but  my  nine-year-old  kid  makes  anywhere 
from  eighty  cents  to  one  dollar  a  day."  The  quick  re- 
turns from  child  labor  appeal  to  the  selfishness  of  the 
manufacturer  as  well  as  to  the  greed  of  the  father  and 
mother.  It  is  not  good  business  to  have  a  man  do  any- 
thing that  a  machine  can  do;  nor  is  it  good  business  to 
put  a  man  to  work  on  a  job  that  a  boy  can  do  just  as  well 
as  a  man.  This  is  the  dictate  of  business.  Children  are 
an  expense,  and  with  the  increased  cost  of  living  there  is 
always  a  temptation  to  utilize  the  children  in  the  family 
as  economic  assets.  "  I  have  three  children,"  said  a 
father  in  an  Indiana  town,  "  and  all  of  them  are  work- 
ing. We  are  about  as  happy  a  family  as  you  want  to 
f?nd  anywhere.  Every  month  we  are  able  to  put  a  tidy 
sum  in  the  savings-bank.    Every  member  of  the  family 


THE  CHILD  WORKERS  177 

is  doing  his  or  her  full  share.  But  now  on  the  other 
hand,  my  brother  has  four  children  and  not  one  of  them 
is  earning  a  cent.  The  oldest  girl  had  to  have  a  college 
education  and  that  is  just  a  drain  on  the  family.  Poor 
George  has  never  known  a  moment's  ease  or  peace  all 
of  his  life,  what  with  an  extravagant  wife  and  four  chil- 
dren eating  their  heads  ofif !  " 

"  Children  are  a  blessing  from  the  Lord,"  says  an  old 
writer.  But  the  modern  interpretation  is  that  they  are 
industrial  units  that  can  be  utilized  to  advantage.  An- 
other reason  for  child  labor,  however,  is  found  in  the 
stress  of  poverty.  Here  is  the  story  told  by  another 
father:  "I  love  my  children  just  as  much  as  anybody 
in  the  city  and  I  would  like  to  see  them  have  a  good  time. 
Joe  is  selling  papers  on  the  street,  May  working  as  cash- 
girl  in  a  dry-gooods  store,  Frankie  clerking  in  a  five-and- 
ten-cent  store,  and  William  working  in  a  pencil  factory — 
but  not  just  because  I  do  not  care  to  provide  for  them. 
You  see  it  is  this  way.  My  folks  were  poor  and  there 
were  nine  of  us  children.  When  I  was  eight  years  old 
I  had  to  go  to  work.  To  begin  with  I  got  good  wages 
for  a  boy,  and  until  I  was  eighteen  or  nineteen  years 
old  I  got  along  all  right.  Jr.st  about  that  time  other 
fellows  came  in  that  had  more  than  twelve  dollars  a 
week.  I  began  at  six  dollars.  Now  I  am  nearly  fifty, 
and  am  already  considered  an  old  man,  and  I  am  getting 
forty  dollars  a  month.  How  can  I  support  my  children 
and  give  them  an  education  such  as  they  ought  to  have  ?  " 
This  indicates  the  vicious  circle  that  is  formed  between 
poverty  and  childhood.  Poverty  forces  children  into  in- 
dustry. They  help  out  for  the  time  being  but  it  is  not 
very  long  before  they  have  used  up  all  their  initiative, 


178  MEN  AND  THINGS 

and  have  gone  just  as  far  as  they  can  go;  and  as  they 
grow  older  their  wages  are  reduced,  and  in  turn  their 
children  have  to  go  into  the  mills  to  help  them  out. 

Poverty  and  the  Cost  of  Living.  Poverty  is  the  chief 
enemy  of  humanity.  It  is  the  parent  of  nearly  all  of  our 
ills.  This  is  the  demon  that  drives  had  bargains.  For 
the  present  the  high  wages  that  are  being  paid  for  labor 
everywhere  has  done  away  with  a  great  deal  of  pov- 
erty ;  but  even  yet  wages  have  not  been  advanced  in 
proportion  to  the  increased  cost  of  living.  Last  fall  in 
Scranton  a  gentleman  whom  I  met  was  bitterly  com- 
plaining of  the  high  price  of  coal.  "  If  it  is  so  high  now 
what  in  the  world  will  the  poor  people  of  the  city  do 
when  the  cold  weather  really  comes  ?  "  Scranton  is  built 
on  the  largest  anthracite  coal  deposit  in  the  world.  It 
is  said  that  in  some  places  the  vein  is  seventy-five  feet 
thick.  It  is  estimated  that  at  the  present  rate  of  pro- 
duction the  supply  will  last  for  one  hundred  years.  If, 
therefore,  the  poor  people  of  Scranton  suffer  for  lack 
of  coal  what  about  the  people  in  other  places?  We 
learned  last  winter  how  essential  coal  is  to  the  life  of  the 
people.  Combinations  all  tend  to  keep  the  prices  high; 
our  foodstuffs,  our  fuel,  our  clothes  are  high,  not  be- 
cause of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  for  we  have 
learned  how  to  circumvent  that  law,  but  we  are  all 
"  jobbed  by  the  jobbers." 

Cold  storage  enables  vast  quantities  of  goods  to  be 
brought  together  and  kept  for  a  rise  in  the  market. 
James  E.  Wetz,  the  so-called  egg-king  of  Chicago,  boasted 
early  last  winter  that  he  had  six  million  dozen  eggs  in 
storage,  and  in  defiance  of  the  Federal  Prosecutor  said, 
"  All  the  investigation,  legislative  or  otherwise,  will  not 


THE  CHILD  WORKERS  179 

bring  the  price  of  eggs  down  this  year.  This  is  a  broker's 
year  and  as  for  me  I  am  going  to  sit  tight,  watch  the 
prices  climb  up,  and  the  public  can  pay.  Nobody  can 
do  anything  to  me."  In  the  French  Revolution  the  queen 
appealed  to  one  of  the  superintendents  of  finance  and 
urged  him  to  bring  about  a  change,  for  the  people  were 
starving.  He  was  obdurate,  however,  and  in  despair  she 
said  to  him,  "  What  will  the  people  eat  ? "  The  con- 
temptuous statement  of  the  French  official  was,  "  Let 
the  people  eat  grass."  With  the  increased  cost  of  living, 
and  the  manipulation  of  the  market  so  as  to  keep  prices 
always  above  a  certain  level,  the  present  rise  in  wages  is 
not  as  great  as  under  ordinary  circumstances.  As  long 
as  there  is  poverty  there  will  always  be  a  strong  incen- 
tive for  the  piratical  industrial  agent  and  the  greedy  con- 
scienceless father  to  join  hands  in  exploiting  childhood. 
Effect  of  Child  Labor.  The  children  of  the  nations 
at  war  have  been  called  the  second  line  of  national  de- 
fense. The  men  in  the  front  line  are  the  soldiers  and  the 
children  growing  up  will  take  their  places.  If  the  child- 
hood of  the  nations  at  war  is  destroyed,  there  is  no 
chance  for  men  to  take  the  places  of  the  ones  who  fall  at 
the  front.  It  is  perfectly  clear  then  that  in  times  of  war 
the  nations  are  dependent  upon  the  growing  boys.  If, 
however,  the  children  in  times  of  war  form  the  second 
line  of  defense,  in  times  of  peace  they  form  the  first 
line  of  defense.  The  future  of  a  nation  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  present  generation.  They 
are  the  men  and  women  that  will  take  the  places  of  the 
business  men,  the  workers  in  the  factories  and  work- 
shops, and  the  tillers  of  the  soil.  They  must  become  the 
future  people  who  will  be  responsible  for  transportation. 


i8o  MEN"  A\D  THINGS 

producers  of  the  raw  materials  of  civilization,  and  those 
who  with  cunning  hands  and  ingenious  brains  work  these 
raw  materials  into  finished  fabrics  that  go  to  make  up  the 
wonders  of  civilization  and  of  the  age.  We  are  robbing 
the  nation  when  we  set  children  to  work  and  make  pro- 
ducers out  of  them. 

Physical  Evils.  The  effects  of  child  labor  are  so  bad 
and  so  well  known  that  there  is  no  need  of  entering  into 
a  formal  discussion  of  the  question.  I  taught  a  class  of 
boys  in  a  settlement  in  Chicago  some  years  ago.  One 
of  the  little  fellows  had  hands  that  were  as  black  as  a 
Negro's,  and  he  always  held  his  hand  in  a  certain  posi- 
tion. One  night  after  class  I  asked  him  to  wait  for  a 
few  minutes.  I  said,  "  Just  a  minute,  Fred.  I  notice 
that  you  always  hold  your  hand  in  a  peculiar  way." 
"  Gee,  it  is  the  only  way  T  can  hold  it,"  he  replied.  Then 
he  showed  me  that  his  fingers  were  all  pressed  out  of 
shape  and  that  the  black  stain  was  ink  that  had  been 
ground  into  his  hand  and  into  his  very  flesh.  This  boy 
looked  to  be  about  twelve  years  old  but  he  was  nearly 
nineteen.  For  almost  nine  years  he  had  been  working  in 
a  box  factory.  His  job  was  to  stencil  the  ends  of  boxes. 
He  would  lay  the  stencil  on  the  wooden  end  of  the  boxes, 
then  hold  a  brush  resembling  a  shaving  brush  in  his  hand 
and  this  he  would  dip  into  the  pot  of  black  and  rub  it 
across  the  stencil.  This  constant  work  for  ten  hours  a 
day  for  nine  years  had  blackened  his  hands  so  that  they 
would  never  be  white  again ;  and  the  constant  pressure 
from  the  brush  had  deformed  his  right  hand  so  that  it 
was  good  for  nothing  else  than  to  hold  a  stencil  brush. 

Nearly  all  the  unemployable  men  who  gather  in  our 
cities,  who  sleep  on  the  park  benches  in  good  weather, 


THE  CHILD  WORKERS  i8i 

cat  wherever  they  can,  and  in  cold  weather  fill  up  the 
municipal  lodging  houses  or  sleep  upon  the  floors  of  the 
police  stations,  are  physically  unfit  because  they  were 
forced  to  go  to  work  at  too  early  an  age.  The  number 
of  these  men  who  are  the  victims  of  child  labor  is  re- 
markable. A  student  of  social  conditions,  who  made 
a  study  of  the  problem  of  unemployment  in  this  country 
in  the  winter  of  1913-14  said,  "  We  are  coming  to  see 
the  rank  folly  of  putting  children  in  at  one  end  of  the 
industrial  hopper,  grinding  them  up,  and  taking  ineffi- 
cient, no-account  men  out  at  the  other  end.  We  have 
thousands  of  children  in  the  country  doing  work  that 
they  ought  not  to  do,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 
who  can  get  nothing  to  do.  We  are  not  only  faced  with 
the  problem  to-day,  but  we  are  projecting  the  problem 
into  to-morrow." 

An  accurate  study  of  the  life  of  the  cotton-mill 
operators  shows  that  the  death-rate  is  so  high  that  the 
inference  is  justified  that  work  in  the  mill  has  an  un- 
fortunate influence  upon  those  who  follow  it.  Approxi- 
mately half  of  the  deaths  of  the  operatives  between  fif- 
teen and  forty-five  years  of  age  are  due  to  tuberculosis. 
Some  years  ago  a  book  was  published  in  defense  of 
child  labor  in  the  South.  The  contention  was  that  the 
workers  in  the  cotton-mill  were  the  most  healthful  of 
any  people  in  the  community.  A  report  made  by  the 
United  States  government  on  the  conditions  in  the  mills 
shows  that  beyond  any  doubt  the  mill  is  a  hazardous 
place  for  an  adult,  to  say  nothing  of  the  child.  In  Massa- 
chusetts, according  to  reports  quoted  by  Florence  I. 
Taylor  of  the  National  Committee  on  Child  Labor,  it 
was  found  that  the  average  fourteen-year-old  mill  boy 


i82  MEN  AND  THINGS 

was  decidedly  below  standard  in  weight  and  height; 
and  that  the  sixteen-year-old  boys  did  not  show  a  nor- 
mal gain  in  height  over  the  fifteen-year-old  boys,  and 
actually  decreased  two  and  a  half  pounds  in  average 
weight.  "  It  was  evident  from  the  physical  examination 
alone,"  said  the  report,  "  that  there  were  boys  whose  in- 
terests from  the  point  of  view  of  physical  welfare  called 
for  further  attention  after  being  permitted  to  go  to  work, 
whatever  the  work  for  which  an  employment  certificate 
might  be  issued." 

In  the  printing  trades,  in  the  paint  shops,  in  glass 
works,  in  coal-mines,  in  fact,  in  every  place  where  chil- 
dren are  employed,  we  find  the  physical  effects  all  bad. 
The  undeveloped  boy  or  girl  is  more  susceptible  to  dis- 
eases that  are  inherent  in  the  several  businesses  them- 
selves. For  instance,  lead  attacks  a  child  worker  more 
quickly  than  it  would  an  adult.  The  fumes  inhaled  and 
the  substances  breathed  in  affect  the  child,  and  owing  to 
the  demands  put  upon  his  physical  strength  by  his  grow- 
ing body  it  is  difficult  for  nature  to  throw  off  the  bad 
effects  of  these  poisons. 

Child  Labor  and  Education.  Another  evil  is  the  loss 
of  educational  opportunities.  "  There  is  plenty  of  time 
for  the  children  to  go  to  school,"  is  a  common  saying 
among  fathers  and  mothers.  "  I  will  send  Mary  to  school 
next  year,"  said  a  farmer  in  Oklahoma.  "  She  wants  to 
go  on  with  her  class.  I  cannot  see  that  it  makes  any 
great  difference  v/hether  she  gets  her  learning  this  year 
or  next."  Mary  was  fourteen  years  old  and  we  have  no 
record  of  Mary's  career,  but  it  is  quite  probable  that  she 
never  got  a  chance  to  go  back  to  school.  The  school 
promised  to  boys  and  girls  who  are  being  used  in  gainful 


THE  CHILD  WORKERS  183 

occupations  is  like  the  promise  tiiat  St.  Patrick  made  to 
the  snakes  in  Ireland  after  he  had  put  them  all  into  a 
box.  He  promised  that  he  would  let  them  out  to-morrow, 
but  to-morrow  never  came,  according  to  the  old  Irish 
legend. 

A  returning  visitor  from  Russia  tells  us  that  the  cause 
of  Russia's  collapse  is  to  be  found  in  the  ignorance  of 
the  people.  Only  one  per  cent,  of  the  people  are  able  to 
read  and  write.  In  the  midst  of  this  dense  ignorance 
the  peasant  groups  believe  everything  and  nothing;  are 
easily  influenced  by  anything  no  matter  how  unsubstan- 
tial, passionate,  cruel,  brutish.  No  wonder  that  Russia 
presents  one  of  the  most  pitiable  spectacles  of  any  nation 
in  the  world's  history.  There  is  serious  danger  that  in 
America  we  will  produce  a  rural  peasantry  that  is  igno- 
rant, and  if  such  should  be  the  case,  there  will  grow  up 
with  this  ignorance  a  narrow-minded  prejudice  against 
everything  that  we  think  is  worth  while  in  life.  Educa- 
tion is  the  hope  of  this  nation  as  well  as  that  of  every 
other  nation. 

What  of  Disposition  and  Character?  Child  labor  has 
a  bad  effect  on  the  disposition.  It  crushes  initiative 
from  the  group,  and  while  it  will  develop  a  type  of 
leadership  in  the  future,  the  leadership  is  not  that  of  free, 
broad-minded  Americans,  but  is  self-assertive  cheap, 
tricky,  and  clannishly  shrewd.  For  instance,  I  was  told 
that  the  children  attending  school  in  an  Arkansas  city 
who  came  from  the  mill  district  were  the  leaders  in  all  the 
sports.  I  asked  some  of  the  boys  about  this,  and  named 
to  them  several  who  I  had  been  told  were  leaders.  The 
reply  was  that  these  fellows  were  not  leaders  but  were 
bullies.     "  No  matter  what  we  play,  they  want  to  run 


i84  MEN  AND  THINGS 

everything,  and  if  we  do  not  do  what  they  want  us  to  do, 
we  have  a  fuss."  The  struggle  in  the  mill  and  the  bearing 
of  responsibilities  had  led  the  mill  boys  to  rely  upon  them- 
selves. They  knew  that  they  could  never  get  anything 
unless  they  got  it  for  themselves  and  by  the  most  direct 
and  brutal  means.  In  an  age  when  a  new  emphasis  is 
being  put  upon  cooperation  any  power  that  warps  the 
disposition  and  creates  wrong  ideals  is  a  real  menace. 
Robbers  of  Childhood.  "  Ketch,"  cried  a  small  lad 
as  he  turned  with  the  ball  in  his  hand  just  as  he  was 
entering  the  mill  door  at  the  end  of  the  thirty  minute  noon 
period  of  freedom.  The  boy  to  whom  he  had  called,  and 
who  had  been  playing  ball  with  him  during  this  period 
raised  his  -hands  preparatory  to  catching  the  ball.  Then 
he  dropped  them  to  his  side  and  said,  "  Naw,  don't 
throw  it,  else  we'll  get  fined  for  not  comin'  in  on  time 
after  the  whistle  blew."  No  time  for  play !  Thirty  min- 
utes for  lunch  and  out  of  that  thirty  minutes  these  boys 
had  taken  as  much  as  possible  for  a  game  of  ball.  By 
night  they  would  be  so  tired  that  there  would  be  no  in- 
clination to  play.  They  would  stand  around  and  talk 
a  little,  or  sit  on  the  front  porch  for  an  hour  after  sup- 
per, and  then  crawl  into  bed  and  sleep  until  aroused  by 
the  whistle  of  the  factory  early  in  the  morning.  This  was 
the  life  of  these  children.  The  only  period  in  their  lives 
when  they  might  have  been  free  was  taken  away  from 
them  and  they  were  made  to  work  in  the  mills  of  in- 
dustry, grinding  out  the  raw  materials  of  civilization 
which  go  into  the  very  foundation  of  our  society,  and 
grinding  out  at  the  same  time  the  joy  of  life  and  the 
possibilities  of  ever  being  able  to  gain  the  best  that 
life  holds  in  store  for  them. 


THE  CHILD  WORKERS  185 

A  National  Evil.  East,  west,  north,  and  south  we 
have  been  robbing  children  on  every  hand.  California 
canners  deplore  the  conditions  among  the  child  workers 
in  Massachusetts.  In  Massachusetts  those  who  employ 
children  find  excuses  for  themselves  in  the  laws  of  the 
state,  and  in  the  traditions  of  New  England,  but  they 
have  no  good  thing  to  say  about  conditions  in  the  mills 
of  the  South.  In  the  South  it  is  easy  to  find  men  who  are 
responsible  for  the  children  working  who  see  nothing 
but  good  evolution  of  the  family  from  bad  rural  con- 
ditions to  a  condition  of  comparative  opulence  in  their 
mill  cities,  but  who  can  see  nothing  good  in  the  child 
labor  as  it  is  found  in  the  coal-mines  in  Pennsylvania  and 
the  beet-fields  of  the  Northwest.  In  Montana  and 
Nebraska  the  farmer  everywhere  will  tell  you  that 
"  Nothing  is  so  good  for  a  child  as  to  work  in  the  beet- 
fields.  It  makes  a  man  of  him  quicker  than  anything 
else." 

The  Unfinished  Task.  When  the  Federal  Child  Labor 
Law  was  passed  which  prohibited  the  shipping  of  any 
goods  in  interstate  commerce  that  had  been  manufac- 
tured by  child  labor,  a  great  many  people  foolishly 
thought  that  the  last  trench  was  taken  and  the  final  vic- 
tory won  in  behalf  of  the  children.  Now  that  this  law 
has  been  declared  unconstitutional  we  will  have  to  begin 
the  fight  for  its  reenactment  in  terms  that  will  be  in 
accord  with  the  constitution  ol  the  United  States.  This 
law  was  a  great  advance  over  anything  we  have  ever 
had  before.  While  it  held,  it  released  thousands  of  chil- 
dren from  toil,  but  there  were  stilll  employed  in  small 
towns,  in  villages,  and  in  the  rural  communities  boys  and 
girls  in  domestic  service,  as  bootblacks,  as  newsboys,  as 


i86  MEN  AND  THINGS 

messenger  boys,  and  at  work  in  stores  and  local  shops. 
According  to  the  last  census  in  the  United  States,  1,990,- 
225  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age  are  at  work  at 
some  gainful  occupation  and  895,976  of  these  children 
are  thirteen  or  under.  Advanced  legislation  has  been 
taken  in  most  of  the  states,  but  as  the  standards  of  such 
legislation  rise  in  the  different  states  it  becomes  clear 
that  with  the  reenactment  of  the  child  labor  law  further 
steps  must  be  taken  for  the  protection  of  children  against 
exploitation.  For  instance,  the  child  labor  law  can  be 
administered  effectively  and  for  the  best  good  of  the 
child  only  in  connection  with  compulsory  education  laws. 
It  is  futile,  and  dangerous  as  well,  to  take  the  children 
out  of  the  mills  and  leave  them  in  idleness  upon  the 
streets.  Higher  and  better  health  standards  must  be 
raised  and  safeguards  thrown  about  the  home  and  school 
life  of  the  children.  Owen  Lovejoy  says,  "  The  physical 
development  of  children  securing  employment  is  quite  as 
important  as  their  age." 

The  War  and  Childhood.  The  war  has  put  a  new 
emphasis  upon  the  value  of  children  as  industrial  assets, 
and  many  states  attempted  to  rescind  the  laws  protect- 
ing children  so  that  they  might  be  allowed  to  work  in 
the  munition  factories  as  a  war  measure.  England  had 
her  experience.  Schools  suffered,  juvenile  delinquency 
grew,  and  chaos  resulted  from  the  short-sighted  policy 
of  those  who  wanted  children  to  help  out  in  a  time  of 
need.  An  English  periodical  is  quoted  as  saying,  "  When 
the  farmers  clamored  for  boys  and  girls  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  war,  it  was  '  for  a  few  weeks  only,'  and  *  to  save 
the  harvest.'  The  few  weeks  have  spread  out  to  a  few 
years;  and  a  few  years  cover  all  the  brief  period  '  'twixt 


THE  CHILD  WORKERS  187 

boy  and  man  '  when  character  is  molded,  education  com- 
pleted, and  skill  of  hand  and  eye  and  intellect  acquired. 
Even  in  the  time  of  peace  one  of  our  statesmen  said  that 
one  of  the  most  urgent  national  problems  was  how  to 
check  the  evils  by  which  too  many  of  our  bright,  clean, 
clever  boys  leaving  school  at  the  ages  of  thirteen  or  four- 
teen, had  become  ignorant  and  worthless  hooligans  at 
seventeen  or  eighteen.  Much  has  been  done  in  recent 
years  by  patient,  skilful  endeavor  to  stanch  this  wound 
in  the  body  politic;  but  now  all  is  reversed  and  the 
hooligan  harvest  promises  to  be  truly  plenteous.  The 
victims  are  of  two  classes.  First,  the  little  children  taken 
from  school  at  illegal  ages  for  a  few  weeks  under  prom- 
ises that  their  interrupted  school  time  should  be  com- 
pleted later  on — a  *  later  on  '  which  was  never  really  prac- 
ticable, and  is  now  frankly  abandoned.  Secondly,  the 
boys  and  girls,  who,  having  completed  their  legal  school 
attendance,  would  normally  have  gone  to  learn  a  trade, 
and  would  by  a  few  years  of  patient  training  and  in- 
dustry at  small  wages  have  made  themselves  skilled  work- 
ers and  worthy  citizens.  But  training  for  any  future 
efficiency,  either  industrial,  social,  or  moral,  has  been 
brushed  aside  by  the  necessities  or  the  hysteria  of  war 
time."  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  we  will  learn  the 
lesson  from  Britain's  experience. 

The  Church's  Part.  There  is  no  one  thing  in  which 
the  church  should  be  so  much  interested  as  in  the  welfare 
of  the  children.  When  Jesus  was  asked  who  was  the 
greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  he  took  a  little  child 
and  set  him  in  the  midst  of  the  disciples.  If  any  one 
offends  a  child,  he  said,  it  were  better  for  him  that  "  a 
millstone   were   hanged   about   his  neck,   and   he   were 


i88  MEN  AND  THINGS 

thrown  into  the  sea."  Entrance  into  his  kingdom  was 
dependent  upon  a  childhke  attitude,  and  the  measure 
of  rewards  and  punishments  was  to  be  meted  out  accord- 
ing to  the  treatment  of  children  by  the  individual  man 
and  woman. 

"  Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  hungry,  or  athirst?  "  is  the 
question  which  we  must  ask.  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it 
not  unto  one  of  these  least,  ye  did  it  not  unto  me,"  is 
the  promised  reply.  The  program  of  the  church  relating 
to  the  children  is  perfectly  simple  and  plain.  Each 
church  should  keep  in  close  touch  with  the  work  of  the 
National  Committee  on  Child  Labor.  Information  can 
be  secured  by  writing  to  the  Secretary,  Owen  R.  Love- 
joy,  105  East  Twenty-second  Street,  New  York,  One 
Sunday  in  each  year,  the  fourth  Sunday  in  January,  is 
set  aside  as  Child  Labor  Sunday.  Every  church  should 
take  pains  to  observe  this  day  and  make  it  a  time  when 
the  members  of  the  church  will  be  made  acquainted  with 
the  work  being  done  by  the  Child  Labor  Committee ;  and 
should  strive  to  understand  the  conditions  concerning 
the  child  laborers  of  America,  and  the  plans  and  pur- 
poses that  are  being  devised  for  meeting  needs  and  for 
protecting  our  nation's  greatest  asset.  Child  Labor  Sun- 
day was  observed  in  nearly  10,000  churches  last  year. 

The  child  laborer  suflFers  because  we  do  not  know  about 
him.  His  life  is  lived  in  a  world  apart.  While  he  is 
producing  the  things  that  we  accept,  we  have  forgotten 
or  passed  over  lightly  the  needs  of  the  producer  himself. 
The  war  puts  a  new  responsibility  upon  us.  Its  agony 
and  suffering  have  made  us  seemingly  callous  to  suffering 
and  we  stand  in  grave  danger  of  losing  our  power  to 
sympathize.     It  is  during  such  periods  as  these  that  the 


THE  CHILD  WORKERS  189 

hard  won  gains  of  generations  may  be  lost.  We  have 
gone  far  in  our  legislation  for  the  protection  of  children 
since  the  days  when  the  Earl  of  Shaftsbury  first  began  his 
work  for  the  poor  boys  of  London.  Much  remains  to  be 
done.  The  church  cannot  slacken  its  efforts  nor  clear 
its  skirts  of  responsibility  if  it  does  not  exert  every  effort 
and  put  forth  all  its  strength  to  pass  new  legislation,  and 
steadfastly  to  set  its  face  against  every  effort  to  break 
down  existing  laws  or  set  them  aside  even  as  a  tem- 
porary measure. 

The  battle  for  democracy  cannot  be  won,  and  will  not 
be  won,  even  with  the  destruction  of  German  autocracy 
if  we  allow  the  bulwark  that  has  been  built  up  for  the 
protection  of  the  children  of  democracy  to  be  torn  down. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Message  and  Ministry  of  the  Church  to  a 
World  of  Work 

"  He  has  never  given  me  a  mouthful  of  bread  nor 
means  to  gain  it.  What  have  I  to  do  with  your  God  ?  " 
This  was  the  answer  of  an  immigrant  woman  to  an 
appeal  made  by  the  church  visitor,  and  it  strikes  nearer 
the  heart  of  our  modern  life  than  it  appears  upon  first 
thought.  Why  indeed  should  a  person  acknowledge  kin- 
ship to  a  God  who  allows  suffering,  sorrow,  and  want  in 
the  world?  It  is  not  enough  to  answer  such  a  question 
by  pointing  to  the  ultimate  ends  God  has  in  view,  for 
with  hunger  gnawing  at  the  very  vitals  it  is  difficult  to  be 
philosophical  or  to  meet  the  problems  of  existence  in  a 
quiet  frame  of  mind.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  a  large 
part  of  the  misery  and  suffering  of  this  world  is  caused 
by  the  sins  and  incompetency  of  the  individual ;  but  it 
does  not  help  one  to  bear  misfortune  to  know  that  he  is  to 
blame  for  his  own  condition.  Is  it  any  easier  for  the 
mother  to  teach  her  hungry  little  children  to  say  their 
prayers  asking  the  heavenly  Father  to  feed  them  when 
she  knows  that  her  husband  has  brought  the  suffering 
and  want  through  his  evil  conduct?  But  suppose  she 
knows  that  her  husband  has  tried  as  hard  as  possible,  and 
in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  and  all  her  care  there  is  not 
enough  bread  for  the  little  ones.     She  is  very  likely  to 

191 


192  MEN  AND  THINGS 

grow  impatient  with  the  religion  that  talks  about  love,  and 
yet  allows  bad  social  conditions  to  exist  in  the  community 
that  robs  children  of  their  childhood,  destroys  manhood, 
and  makes  women  slaves  in  their  own  homes. 

We  have  studied  certain  groups  of  the  workers,  and 
great  as  is  the  contribution  made  by  these  workers,  it 
is  only  a  small  part  of  the  story.  The  world  of  the 
workers  is  a  very  large  world.  Within  this  world  things 
are  produced  that  enrich  mankind  to  a  degree  that  has 
never  even  been  dreamed  of  in  any  other  age  of  the 
world's  history.  The  men  who  are  producing  these 
things  are  the  true  servants  of  the  world. 

Social  Salvation  and  the  Wage-Earners.  The 
church,  in  order  to  retain  its  ascendency  in  national  life, 
must  lay  increasing  emphasis  upon  the  importance  of 
social  salvation.  The  importance  of  social  salvation  as 
contrasted  with  individual  salvation  was  seen  by  the 
great  spiritual  teachers  of  the  past ;  but  modern  civiliza- 
tion, with  its  marvels  of  intercommunication,  has  placed 
a  new  emphasis  upon  mutual  dependence  of  associated 
human  beings,  and  has  made  self-realization  a  possibility 
only  in  connection  with  the  salvation  of  the  social  group. 
The  social  group  consists  mainly  of  wage-earners,  two 
thirds  of  those  gainfully  employed  in  the  nation  being 
dependent  for  food,  shelter,  and  clothing  upon  a  daily, 
weekly,  or  monthly  wage.  Therefore,  social  salvation 
is  largely  a  question  of  the  salvation  of  the  wage-earner. 
The  problem  is  a  dual  one.  It  is  material  and  spiritual. 
It  is  material,  because  the  higher  purposes  of  the  Eternal 
cannot  be  attained  in  an  atmosphere  of  inefficiency,  dis- 
ease, unemployment,  vice,  crime,  and  general  destitution. 
It  is  spiritual,  because  the  elimination  of  inefficiency,  dis- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK        193 

ease,  unemployment,  vice,  crime,  and  general  destitution 
will  not  regenerate  character.  The  salvation  of  the  wage- 
earner  must,  therefore,  be  achieved  by  the  combined 
efforts  of  three  important  agencies  of  social  reconstruc- 
tion :  religion,  education,  and  government.  Religion  fur- 
nishes the  motive,  education  the  method,  and  government 
the  mechanism  of  social  reconstruction ;  each  of  these 
three  is  impotent  without  the  other  two. 

Religion  from  this  view-point  must  be  personal  and 
social  in  order  that  regenerated  individuals  may  work 
for  the  material  and  spiritual  regeneration  of  national 
life.  Education  from  this  view-point  must  be  technical, 
scientific,  moral,  and  universal  so  that  all  may  have  the 
opportunity  to  become  skilled  workers,  progressive 
thinkers,  and  efficient  citizens.  Government  from  this 
view-point  must  be  controlled  by  the  religious  element  of 
the  community  and  equipped  with  a  program  of  economic 
and  social  reform  based  on  scientific  investigation. 
Scientific  studies  of  the  wage-earners'  communities  show 
that  a  family  of  five  in  a  large  American  city  requires 
a  minimum  income  of  $900  in  order  to  maintain  its 
physical  equilibrium,  and  that  three  out  of  every  four 
adult  males,  and  nineteen  out  of  every  twenty  adult 
females  in  the  United  States,  receive  less  than  $600  a 
year.  No  one  can  longer  doubt  that  the  hardships  and 
depravity  of  the  poor  are  more  economic  and  social  than 
personal ;  and  that  the  responsibility  for  human  misery 
is  put  squarely  upon  the  more  fortunate  members  of  so- 
ciety. The  way  of  salvation  for  the  poor  and  helpless 
lies  along  the  path  of  the  educated  conscience  of  the 
rich  and  powerful. 

Workers  and  the  Church.   Much  has  been  written 


194  MEN  AND  THINGS 

and  said  in  criticism  of  the  church.  Many  statistics  have 
been  given  to  prove  that  the  workers  are  not  members  of 
the  church.  For  the  most  part  the  figures  quoted  are 
mere  guesses.  It  is  sheer  folly  to  assume  that  the 
working  people  of  our  nation  are  not  religious.  Religion 
is  as  natural  to  all  people  as  is  breathing.  The  belief 
in  God  is  well-nigh  universal.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  that 
comparatively  few  of  the  mass  of  workers  of  our  coun- 
try are  connected  in  any  way  with  the  church,  or  have 
any  part  in  carrying  on  the  functions  of  organized  re- 
ligion. There  are  a  great  many  working  people  in  the 
churches,  but  in  proportion  to  the  large  number  of  wage- 
earners  in  each  community  there  are  comparatively  few 
of  the  actual  producers  in  the  churches. 

A  study  made  in  city  after  city  shows  that  the  churches 
are  largely  made  up  of  the  well-to-do,  middle-class  people. 
In  one  typical  city  of  75,000  people  there  were  found  to 
be  approximately  30,000  members  of  all  the  religious 
organizations,  Protestant,  Catholic,  and  Jews.  Of  this 
total  number  approximately  1,000  were  wage-earners, 
that  is,  men  and  women  working  in  shops  and  factories; 
500  of  these  were  members  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
the  other  500  were  distributed  among  the  sixteen 
Protestant  churches.  There  were  a  great  many  persons  in 
these  churches  who  were  dependent  upon  their  wages ; 
such  as  clerks,  stenographers,  bookkeepers,  and  others 
who  should  be  classed  as  belonging  to  the  industrial  group. 
But  as  some  one  has  said,  the  distinction  between  people 
who  are  in  the  churches  and  those  untouched  by  the 
church  can  be  drawn  in  this  way:  those  who  refer  to 
the  remuneration  received  for  their  work  as  a  salary,  and 
their  work  as  a  position,  are  in  one  group  and  they 


'^ 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK        195 

attend  church ;  the  other  group  is  made  up  of  those  who 
refer  to  their  work  as  a  job,  and  the  remuneration  re- 
ceived as  wages,  and  but  few  of  these  go  to  church.  The 
conditions  found  in  that  instance  are  the  same  that 
would  be  found  in  most  cities  of  the  same  size  in  America. 
The  total  membership  was  a  little  larger,  perhaps,  for 
in  most  places  only  about  one  third  of  the  people  are  con- 
nected with  the  churches. 

The  Makers  of  Things  Outside  the  Churches.  Com- 
munities in  which  the  church  has  failed  are  the  com- 
munities where  may  be  found  most  of  the  workers  who 
are  the  actual  producers  of  the  things  that  go  to  make 
up  our  life.  The  men  who  run  the  lathes  and  other 
machines,  the  day-laborers  on  the  street,  in  the  factory, 
and  on  the  railroads ;  these  men  and  their  families  are 
the  ones  untouched  by  the  church.  The  foremen,  the 
better  class  of  skilled  mechanics,  and  those  workers  who 
are  doing  the  more  congenial  kinds  of  work  are  the  ones 
found  in  the  churches.  I  asked  one  of  the  leading  labor 
leaders  of  the  country  why  it  is  that  the  laboring  man 
is  opposed  to  the  church.  "  Opposed  ?  "  he  answered. 
"  He  is  not  opposed.  The  average  laboring  man  living 
under  average  conditions  does  not  know  that  there  is  a 
church  in  town."  In  other  words,  the  church  moves 
in  an  orbit  that  is  totally  removed  from  the  life  of  the 
mass  of  the  workers. 

When  Nineteen  Men  Last  Went  to  Church.  During 
the  last  year  I  took  occasion  to  ask  different  men  that  I 
met  at  various  times  what  they  thought  of  the  church. 
I  have  the  record  of  the  conversation  of  nineteen  men 
on  this  subject.  Not  one  of  these  men  had  been  to 
church  with  any  degree  of  regularity  during  the  past 


196  MEN  AND  THINGS 

five  years;  three  of  them  had  attended  the  Billy  Sunday 
meetings  in  the  various  cities.  They  w^ent  to  see  the 
evangelist,  however,  just  as  they  would  visit  Barnum  & 
Bailey's  circus,  and  they  professed  to  having  come  away 
from  the  meetings  in  the  same  frame  of  mind  as  if  they 
had  been  attending  such  an  entertainment.  Five  of  the 
men  were  Jews,  nine  were  Roman  Catholics,  and  five 
were  Protestants.  They  gave  various  reasons  for  not 
going  to  church,  but  all  agreed  on  three  things :  they 
had  no  especial  criticism  or  complaint  to  make  regard- 
ing the  church ;  it  was  easier  to  stay  at  home  on  Sundays 
than  it  was  to  go  to  church ;  the  church  had  very  little 
to  do  with  the  things  that  they  were  interested  in.  One 
of  the  men  said,  "  The  minister  stands  in  a  pulpit  over 
my  head  and  talks  down  to  me  about  things  that  I  am 
not  interested  in."  They  also  agreed  that  they  could 
see  no  special  reason  why  they  should  be  influenced  or 
moved  to  live  according  to  the  requirements  of  the 
church. 

The  church  has  no  especial  authority  and  a  life  of 
piety  did  not  appeal  to  these  men.  I\Iy  conclusion  was  that 
the  church  had  lost  its  grip  upon  these  men  because  of 
the  innate  selfishness  of  the  individual  and  the  unwilling- 
ness on  his  part  to  pay  the  price  demanded  of  a  true 
follower  of  any  religion.  These  men  were  living  under 
false  impressions  as  to  what  the  church  required  and 
knew  nothing  of  the  quality  of  the  church's  message. 
The  fact  remained,  however,  that  the  church  failed  to 
reach  them,  and  if  we  define  religion  as  the  giving  of 
one's  self  to  the  group,  these  men  had  no  religion,  for 
they  were  each  living  their  own  lives  in  their  own  self- 
ish way.      Of   these  nineteen  men   three   were   skilled 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK         197 

mechanics,  five  worked  in  a  cottonseed  mill,  four  were 
traveling  salesmen,  and  the  remaining  seven  were  busi- 
ness men.  This  would  seem  to  prove  that  the  church 
has  failed  to  reach  other  groups  in  the  community  as 
well  as  the  groups  of  laboring  men. 

The  Church  and  the  Age.  The  new  social  order  must 
be  based  upon  righteousness,  and  the  church  must  fur- 
nish the  power  that  will  carry  forth  the  plans  of  recon- 
struction to  ultimate  victory.  It  must  supply  the  re- 
generating social  influences  for  our  generation  in  order 
to  live  up  to  its  privilege  and  fulfil  its  function  in  the 
world.  It  is  the  will  rather  than  the  intellect  of  men 
that  is  primarily  influenced  by  religion.  The  doctrine  of 
the  church  attracts  only  a  few  people ;  speculation  on 
theological  questions,  and  arguments  regarding  life  and 
its  problems  are  futile  in  the  face  of  the  bitter  experi- 
ences that  lead  the  majority  of  the  working  people  to 
view  life  from  the  standpoint  of  the  pessimist.  What 
men  want  to  know  about  the  church  is,  does  it  make 
people  better  neighbors?  Is  there  more  kindness  in  the 
community  because  of  the  church?  These  are  the  things 
that  are  of  paramount  importance.  A  boy  passed  by 
three  churches  on  his  way  to  attend  a  certain  Sunday- 
school.  A  neighbor  said  to  him,  "  Why  do  you  go  so 
far?  why  don't  you  come  to  my  Sunday-school?"  "1 
do  not  care  how  far  it  is,"  he  replied ;  "  they  like  me 
down  at  the  other  church."  This  is  the  secret  of  the  suc- 
cess of  much  that  is  being  done  to-day  by  different 
churches. 

A  prominent  pastor  desiring  to  discover  how  his 
preaching  would  aflfect  different  classes  of  people  had  a 
friend  invite  some  persons  from  different  parts  of  the 


198  MEN  AND  THINGS 

city;  and  then  after  the  service  these  people  were  in- 
vited to  meet  with  others  in  one  of  the  classrooms  to 
discuss  the  senmon.  It  was  almost  impossible  to  draw 
any  expressions  of  opinion  from  them  as  to  the  value  of 
the  service,  but  they  agreed  that  they  did  not  feel  at 
home  in  the  church.  Yet  none  of  these  visitors  could 
tell  what  he  meant  by  "  feeling  at  home."  The  fact  is, 
however,  more  people  go  to  church  to-day  because  of  the 
friendships  that  they  find  within  the  institution  than  be- 
cause of  their  desire  for  religious  instruction.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  people  who  are  outside  of  the  church 
are  outside  because  to  them  the  institution  seems  cold, 
narrow,  and  unattractive,  and  fits  the  description  given 
by  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  of  many  churches  that  he 
had  known,  "  A  fire  at  which  no  man  ever  warms  his 
hands." 

A  Ministry  to  All.  The  Morgan  Memorial  Church 
of  Boston  touches  a  wide  community  and  is  carrying  on 
a  very  extensive  work.  It  has  enlarged  its  plant  from 
time  to  time  until  it  occupies  almost  a  solid  block. 
There  has  recently  been  erected  a  new  building  to  be 
operated  in  connection  with  this  institution  known  as 
the  Church  of  all  Nations.  Here  is  the  gathering  place 
of  the  multitude  from  every  land  who  now  live  in  the 
south  end  of  Boston.  In  addition  to  the  regular  religious 
services  there  is  a  rescue  mission  for  the  "  down  and 
outs,"  and  dormitories  for  men  and  women  where  clean 
beds  can  be  secured  at  a  reasonable  price.  There  are 
workshops,  employment  bureaus,  a  restaurant,  a  reading- 
room  and,  in  fact,  under  one  roof  this  church  houses  a 
community  of  interests,  economic,  industrial,  social,  edu- 
cational, and  religious.     On  the   front  of  the  building 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK        199 

there  is  a  lighted  cross,  and  to  all  of  the  south  end  of 
Boston  this  cross  means  hope. 

Story  of  Twenty-five  Years.  The  church  has  not 
accomplished  all  that  might  have  been  accomplished,  but 
when  we  study  the  history  of  the  last  twenty-five  years 
and  take  stock  of  the  results  that  have  been  achieved, 
we  find  that  there  are  countless  things  that  indicate  a 
real  life  interest,  and  a  purpose  toward  achievement  in 
the  church. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  the  Student  Volunteer  Move- 
ment for  Foreign  Missions  was  just  beginning,  and  a 
Social  Service  Commission  for  the  churches  would  have 
been  considered  as  something  having  no  part  in  the 
churches'  work.  In  fact,  at  that  time  the  men  who  were 
the  prophets  of  the  new  social  order  were  looked  upon 
as  dangerous  leaders.  There  were  only  a  few  books  that 
dealt  with  the  social  aspects  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
and  these  were  theological  and  theoretical  rather  than 
practical.  At  that  time  institutional  churches  were  novel- 
ties, and  the  efforts  that  were  being  directed  toward  the 
solution  of  the  social  questions  by  the  church  were  very 
often  efforts  in  the  wrong  direction.  The  institutional 
church  was  not  a  complete  success  because  it  attempted 
to  do  for  people  instead  of  inspiring  people  to  do  for 
themselves.  The  institutional  church  and  the  modern 
socialized  church  have  the  same  relationship  to  each 
other  as  the  old  alms-giving  societies  have  to  the  modern 
charitable  organizations.  Legislation  in  the  interests  of 
women  and  children  was  considered  totally  out  of  the 
realm  of  Christian  interests.  "  The  church  was  put  in 
the  world  to  save  souls  and  not  to  dabble  in  politics," 
was  a  favorite  definition  of  the  church's  sphere.    There 


2O0  MEN  AND  THINGS 

was  little  church  unity  or  coordination  of  effort.  The 
churches  were  more  busy  fighting  each  other  than  they 
were  fighting  the  common  foes  of  the  community.  There 
were  only  one  or  two  professors  in  our  theological  semi- 
naries who  were  teaching  sociology,  and  of  one  of  these 
men  an  eminent  authority  in  the  church  of  that  time 
said:  "  He  ruined  a  lot  of  good  ministers  and  made  a  lot 
of  poor  socialists  by  turning  the  attention  of  the  young 
men  who  came  under  his  teaching  to  merely  humani- 
tarian interests."  The  church  leaders  knew  nothing 
about  the  labor  movement ;  in  fact,  at  that  time,  the 
modern  labor  movement  as  represented  in  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  was  just  beginning  to  gain  strength. 
The  church  made  no  special  efforts  to  interpret  the  spirit 
of  Christ  in  terms  of  international  relationship. 

The  Present  Situation.  Now,  when  we  compare  the 
present  situation  with  these  facts,  there  is  every  reason 
to  be  encouraged.  Never  in  the  history  of  the  world  was 
there  a  time  when  organized  religion  was  more  efficient. 
When  was  there  ever  such  interest  in  religious  educa- 
tion? so  much  cooperative  effort  among  Protestant 
bodies?  such  an  eagerness  to  discuss  ways  in  which  men 
of  widely  different  views  may  work  together?  The 
money  given  for  missions  and  social  reconstruction 
reaches  proportions  that  were  never  dreamed  of  before. 
Jesus  Christ  is  recognized  to-day  as  the  friend  of  all 
men  and  his  salvation  is  recognized  as  applying  to  social, 
industrial,  and  educational  relationships  as  well  as  to 
ii;dividual  needs.  He  is  the  Savior  of  the  individual  and 
also  the  Savior  of  the  world  in  which  the  individual  lives. 
It  is  true  that  the  individual  cannot  enter  the  kingdom 
of  God  unless  he  is  bom  again,  but  it  is  equally  true 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK        201 

that  the  whole  social  fabric  must  be  recast  and  social 
relationships  regenerated,  else  the  kingdom  of  God  can- 
not come  in  this  world. 

Nearly  all  the  parables  of  Jesus  have  to  do  with  the 
idea  of  mutual  helpfulness.  The  parable  of  ihe  Good 
Samaritan  will  always  stand  first  as  the  exemplification 
of  the  life  that  bears  another's  burdens.  The  teachings  of 
Jesus  sums  itself  up  in  supreme  love  for  God  and  for  one's 
fellow  man.  At  the  marriage  feast  the  multitude  were 
invited  and  they  came  from  the  highways  and  the  hedges. 
According  to  Jesus'  teachings  all  material  possessions 
are  to  be  counted  as  nothing  when  compared  to  the  use 
and  he'pfulness  of  these  possessions.  His  bitter  de- 
nunciation and  burning  wrath  were  turned  against  the 
hypocrites  who  made  long  prayers,  took  the  widow's 
mite,  paid  their  church  dues,  forgot  mercy,  and  used 
harsh  measures  against  the  defenseless.  In  every  in- 
stance where  Jesus  referred  to  future  punishment,  it 
was  to  be  visited  upon  the  individual  because  he  failed 
to  live  according  to  the  law  of  love  and  was  making  bur- 
dens harder  to  be  borne  rather  than  helping  men  to  bear 
them.     His  law  was  the  law  of  cooperation. 

The  early  church  began  among  the  very  poor;  and  all 
through  the  Apostolic  Age  the  slave  and  the  owner,  the 
poor  man  and  the  rich  man,  met  on  the  plane  of  equality. 
There  was  only  one  interest  for  all  and  that  was  the  life 
of  the  Master.  It  is  said  that  Napoleon  and  several  of 
his  aides  were  one  day  walking  along  the  country  road. 
They  met  a  peasant  carrying  a  load  of  fagots  who  did  not 
get  out  of  the  path  as  quickly  as  one  of  the  emf'cror's 
companions  thought  he  should,  so  stepping  up  to  the 
rustic  he  took  him  by  the  shoulders  and  started  to  push 


202  MEN  AND  THINGS 

him  out  of  the  way.  "  Stop,"  said  Napoleon,  motioning 
to  his  companions  to  step  out  of  the  road  while  he  did 
the  same.  "  Messieurs,  let  us  respect  the  burden,  even  if 
you  do  not  respect  the  man."  In  the  community  there 
are  a  multitude  of  burden  bearers.  The  church  must  be 
filled  with  the  desire  to  do  what  it  can  to  improve  the 
conditions  in  the  community  life,  and  to  add  to  the  good 
of  all  the  people,  so  that  the  community  relationships 
will  no  longer  be  regarded  as  matters  of  indifference 
to  be  taken  up  or  laid  aside  without  faithfulness  to  the 
gospel.  The  success  of  the  church  must  be  measured 
in  terms  of  the  community  life. 

Inspiration  for  Social  Effort.  The  church  is  not 
merely  a  reform  agency.  It  is  not  primarily  interested 
in  housing,  ventilation,  sanitation,  and  labor  questions, 
but  is  completely  interested  in  the  moral  aspects  of  these 
questions,  and  their  effect  upon  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity and  the  life  of  the  individuals  in  the  community. 
Any  church  which  fails  to  educate  its  members  to  look 
at  all  such  matters  from  the  moral  point  of  view,  and 
fails  to  make  eflfective  the  principles  of  Jesus  in  relation 
to  the  social  life  of  the  community,  is  falling  far  short 
of  its  duty.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  men  and  women 
who  are  struggling  with  the  evils  of  society  grow  im- 
patient with  the  churches  that  do  not  undertake  to  help 
humanity.  One  worker  expresses  it  thus:  "The  trouble 
with  all  social  effort  is  that  we  have  no  inspiration  for 
the  task.  The  churches  that  should  be  helping  us  by 
supplying  this  inspiration  are  apparently  afraid  to  take 
hold  of  the  job."  This  is  too  sweeping  a  criticism,  for 
there  are  hundreds  of  churches  that  are  doing  just  this 
thing. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK        203 

The  Church  and  Other  Organizations.  Instead  of 
institutional  churches,  however,  we  are  substituting  the 
sociaHzed  church,  and  it  is  not  what  the  church  is 
doing  as  an  institution  but  what  it  is  inspiring  others  to 
do  in  the  community  that  counts  most.  When  the 
church  cannot  get  any  one  else  to  do  a  certain  task,  then 
the  church  must  shoulder  the  responsibility  itself.  The 
church  ought  to  cooperate  with  the  united  charities  of 
the  community.  It  will  not  be  enough  for  it  to  have 
merely  a  member  or  two  on  the  boards  of  these  organiza- 
tions; the  church  as  an  organization  must  be  in  close 
touch  with  them,  furnishing  money  and  workers,  and 
helping  to  plan  and  carry  out  the  plans  of  the  organiza- 
tion. Above  all,  it  must  supply  the  proper  spirit  of  love 
which  will  oflfset  that  professionalism  which  is  to-day  a 
growing  evil  in  all  charitable  effort. 

The  Church  and  the  Outcasts.  The  church  ought  to 
be  organized  so  that  the  sick  and  the  poor,  the  unfor- 
tunate and  the  people  out  of  work,  would  find  it  a  friend 
and  champion.  There  was  a  preacher  in  one  of  our 
churches  in  a  certain  city  who  was  greatly  disliked  by 
all  the  so-called  "  respectable  "  people  who  knew  him. 
As  one  man  put  it,  "  He  has  long  hair,  a  long  tongue,  and 
is  a  trouble-maker."  But  among  the  outcasts  in  the  city 
he  was  known  as  the  "  Chaplain  for  the  nobody-knows- 
who."  By  this  term  those  who  loved  him  meant  that 
he  was  a  friend  of  the  neglected  people  of  the  great  city. 
After  he  died  men  who  had  no  use  for  him  before  began 
to  tell  of  little  illuminating  incidents  in  his  life,  and 
thousands  of  people  testified  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  an  inspiration  and  a  help. 

The  early  Christians  were  not  a  very  respectable  lot 


204  MEN  AND  THINGS 

of  people  nor  would  they  have  been  very  congenial. 
Probably  some  of  our  modern  churches  are  so  fine  that 
these  people  would  have  been  considered  out  of  place; 
but  it  was  to  these  people  that  Jesus  preached  his  gos- 
pel in  the  first  place,  and  from  them  the  influence  of 
Christianity  spread  until  the  whole  life  of  the  Roman 
world  was  brought  under  the  control  of  the  new  gospel. 
Now,  of  course,  all  the  laboring  groups  that  we  have  been 
considering  are  not  made  up  of  the  poorest  people  in 
the  community.  The  heart  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  is  sound  to  the  core ;  their  principles  are  strong 
and  their  morals  are  uncorrupted.  We  are  very  likely 
to  measure  morals  by  social  customs.  Just  because  a 
man  shaves  every  day  and  wears  a  white  collar  is  no  sign 
that  he  is  a  gentleman ;  while  the  man  who  wears  blue 
overalls,  who  shaves  once  a  week,  whose  face  and  hands 
are  grimy  with  toil,  is  not  by  these  things  made  an  un- 
couth barbarian.  The  reverse  is  very  often  true.  The 
unions  have  been  educating  their  members;  and  the  men 
gathered  in  these  organizations  have  a  fund  of  common 
sense  and  a  breadth  of  judgment  that  would  put  to 
shame  men  who  have  had  much  larger  experiences  and 
wider  opportunities  both  for  education  and  travel.  The 
son  of  a  man  with  a  salary  of  twelve  to  fifteen  thou- 
sand a  year  was  expelled  from  one  of  our  universities 
a  few  years  ago ;  and  in  the  same  year  the  honor  man 
in  the  class  was  the  son  of  a  blacksmith  who  worked  for 
one  of  the  Western  coal-mining  companies.  This  boy 
was  one  of  a  family  of  six  children.  With  the  help  and 
efforts  of  no  one  but  himself  he  was  able  to  go  through 
the  university  and  graduate  at  the  head  of  his  class.  All 
the  forces  of  our  time  are  at  work  leveling  the  fictitious 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK    205 

and  mischievous  barriers  that  have  been  raised  between 
men,  and  which  divide  society  into  groups  and  classes. 

Wider  Use  of  the  Church  Plant.  The  church  build- 
ing can  be  used  for  very  much  wider  service  than  at 
present.  The  church  is  usually  one  of  the  best-equipped 
buildings  in  the  community.  It  has  light,  air,  and  heating 
facilities  and  can  take  care  of  a  large  number  of  people. 
In  the  Maverick  Church,  East  Boston,  they  are  using 
the  church  for  club  purposes.  Just  at  present  plans  are 
being  devised  whereby  this  property  will  be  used  much 
more  extensively  for  meeting  the  new  needs  put  upon 
the  community  by  the  old  ship-building  industry  that 
has  just  been  revived.  Plymouth  Church,  Oakland, 
California,  is  a  veritable  beehive  of  industry.  Every 
night  different  groups  gather  in  the  social  clubs,  sewing 
classes,  cooking  classes,  and  other  organizations.  The 
community  looks  upon  this  church  as  the  natural  meet- 
ing-place to  discuss  vital  problems.  During  the  past 
winter  in  one  of  the  Baptist  churches  on  the  east  side  of 
New  York  different  nationalities  met  night  after  night 
and  were  instructed  concerning  patriotism  and  the  moral 
issues  of  the  war  by  men  who  spoke  the  tongues  of  the 
men  attending. 

A  Presbyterian  church  in  Du  Page  County,  Illinois, 
became  famous  because  it  made  its  buildings  available 
for  all  social  activities  and  interests  of  the  community. 
A  report  of  this  work  says :  "  The  older  people  often 
attend  and  engage  in  play  with  the  young  people.  Re- 
freshments are  served  free  at  these  gatherings.  Special 
attention  is  given  to  strangers  and  to  the  backward  boys 
and  girls,  and  a  few  of  the  leaders  have  always  upon 
their  hearts  those  who  are  not  of  the  fold  of  Christ. 


2o6  MEN  AND  THINGS 

The  people  become  well  acquainted,  and  such  fellow- 
ship, such  friendships,  such  companionships  are  created 
— all  centering  around  the  church !  "  The  writer,  telling 
of  the  work  in  another  progressive  church,  says :  "  This 
church  has  learned  the  value  of  the  inspirational  meet- 
ings. Two  principal  ones  are  held  each  year.  One  takes 
place  on  New  Year's  eve  when  the  whole  community, 
old  and  young,  gather  at  church  as  one  family  to  watch 
the  old  year  out  and  to  welcome  in  the  new.  This  is 
no  common  watch  service.  The  evening  is  filled  to  over- 
flowing with  good  and  interesting  things.  The  other 
great  inspirational  meeting  is  held  at  the  close  of  the 
church  year.  It  is  an  all  day  meeting,  and  the  whole 
countryside  turns  out  to  help  round  up  the  year's  work. 
The  ladies  serve  a  banquet  at  noon  free  of  charge. 
There  is  always  good  music  on  this  occasion  and  two 
or  three  talented  participants  from  outside  supplement 
the  home  talent.  These  big  meetings  are  of  benefit  to 
the  country  people.  They  promote  friendship  and  good 
fellowship,  and  the  dead  level  gait  always  receives  a  big 
jolt."  These  are  just  a  few  of  the  churches  that  are 
making  good  use  of  their  buildings,  and  there  are  hun- 
dreds of  others  all  over  the  country.  Whenever  you  feel 
that  the  church  is  failing,  just  turn  to  the  record  of 
some  church  that  is  really  doing  what  it  ought  to  do. 
You  can  easily  find  some  such  church,  and  what  is  being 
done  in  one  place  can  be  done  in  another.  People  are 
the  same  the  world  over,  and  all  groups  can  be  brought 
together  upon  a  common  level  of  interests  and  good 
fellowship. 

A  Program  of  Action.    The  war  has  emphasized  the 
necessity    of    m.aking    our    communities    lOo   per    cent. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK    207 

American.  We  are  thinking  in  terms  of  nationalities  and 
races  now  because  of  the  present  world  crisis.  We  need 
each  community  to  be  not  only  100  per  cent.  American, 
but  100  per  cent,  democratic  and  neighborly.  This  in- 
volves the  study  of  the  questions  of  the  relation  of  the 
foreigner  and  of  his  Americanization;  the  problems  of 
the  housing  of  the  community,  and  the  questions  of  the 
eight-hour  day  and  union  labor.  The  charge  that  the 
church  speaks  for  the  employer  rather  than  for  the  work- 
ingman  must  be  completely  answered,  so  that  every 
workingman  in  every  community  will  come  to  realize 
from  practical  contact  with  the  churches  that  he  knows 
that  they  are  not  capitalistic  institutions.  He  must  learn 
that  they  stand  for  all  men;  and  that  they  speak  fairly 
and  unreservedly  for  the  cause  of  humanity  and  cham- 
pion the  rights  of  men  against  the  encroachment  of 
everything  that  would  crush  the  spirit  of  man.  The 
church  must  interest  itself  in  the  problem  of  recreation. 
People  used  to  work  for  a  living;  now  they  work  for 
profit.  Playtime  was  formerly  not  such  a  problem  as 
it  is  to-day,  for  industry  was  not  geared  up  to  the  same 
high  pitch  of  efficiency.  To-day  the  margin  of  play  is 
about  the  only  margin  of  an  individual's  life  when  he 
is  really  himself.  In  our  cities  especially  the  problem 
of  play  is  a  real  problem.  The  questionable  forms  of 
amusement  are  patronized,  not  because  young  men  and 
young  women  are  inherently  bad,  but  because  they  are 
the  only  means  of  recreation  offered.  The  motion- 
picture  theater  is  popular  because  the  best  of  the  drama 
has  been  put  within  reach  of  the  average  person.  Public 
health  should  be  a  vital  consideration  of  the  church.  In 
fact,  every  line  of  effort  that  involves  the  welfare  and 


2o8  MEN  AND  THINGS 

happiness  of  human  beings  is  of  interest  to  the  Christian 
church. 

No  church  ought  to  have  at  first  too  intricate  a  pro- 
gram. More  can  be  accompHshed  by  an  active  pro-virtue 
program  than  by  one  that  is  all  anti-vice,  but  the  church 
must  also  be  a  fighting  organization.  We  must  fight 
evil  of  every  kind.  The  great  struggle  of  the  church 
against  the  liquor  traffic  and  against  vice  has  resulted  in 
a  vast  amount  of  good.  The  thing  to  remember,  how- 
ever, is  that  the  church  must  not  stop  simply  vi^ith  its 
protest  and  its  fight. 

The  Ultimate  End  of  All  Effort.  Nothing  material 
or  physical  is  final.  We  are  not  to  provide  social  rooms, 
good  healthful  surroundings,  playgrounds,  and  other 
social  good  things  just  for  themselves,  but  because  these 
things  are  essential  to  the  best  and  highest  moral  de- 
velopment of  individuals.  In  the  last  analysis  the  work 
of  the  church  is  the  salvation  of  men  and  women.  Its 
work,  as  has  been  said,  is  to  put  a  sky  over  men's  heads. 
You  cannot  save  individuals  by  giving  them  good  phys- 
ical surroundings,  healthful  conditions,  and  by  supplying 
all  their  physical  needs.  These  are  merely  the  steps  to  the 
temple  of  the  spirit.  The  weakness  of  most  of  our  schemes 
for  social  betterment  is  found  in  the  fact  that  many  of 
them  would  put  a  man  in  a  fine  room,  with  good  light, 
splendid  furnishings,  serve  a  sumptuous  meal  to  him  and 
then  start  a  force-pump  and  pump  all  the  air  out  of  the 
room.  A  man  may  die  in  the  midst  of  the  finest  things 
with  which  we  can  surround  him.  People  must  grow, 
and  growth  demands  atmosphere,  and  if  t^e  give  every- 
thing else  and  fail  to  create  the  right  kind  of  atmosphere 
we  are  failing.     "  Seek  ye  first  his   [God's]    kingdom, 


THE  CHURCH  AND  A  WORLD  OF  WORK        209 

and  his  righteousness ;  and  all  the  other  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you."  By  this  Jesus  did  not  mean  that  wc 
were  to  put  less  emphasis  on  right  conditions,  but  that 
if  we  get  conditions  right,  then  we  can  work  for  the 
things  that  really  are  of  greatest  interest.  Above  all, 
he  was  warning  of  the  danger  that  faces  us  to-day,  of 
becoming  so  much  interested  in  a  man's  social  welfare 
that  we  lose  sight  of  the  emphasis  which  the  great 
Teacher  would  put  upon  the  qualities  which  make  up 
humanity. 

We  must  recognize  man  as  a  spiritual  being,  and 
everything  that  goes  to  make  him  better  physically  ought 
to  make  him  better  spiritually.  The  best  work  of  the 
church,  and  the  work  which  God  alone  can  do  for  the 
community,  is  to  carry  humanity  beyond  physical  better- 
ment into  the  realm  of  spiritual  idealism.  This  is  our 
task.  This  is  the  church's  goal.  When  this  is  realized 
in  all  society  then  the  kingdom  of  God  will  be  realized 
on  earth ;  and  the  things  that  men  create  will  be  set 
in  right  relationship  to  the  men  themselves ;  that  is,  they 
will  become  the  adjuncts  of  every  man's  life  and  will 
minister  to  all  human  happiness. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A  BRIEF  READING  LIST 
The  Rural  Problem 

Bailey,  L.  H.  The  Country  Life  Movement  hi  the  United  States. 
191 1.     Macmillan  Company,  New  York.     75  cents. 

Brunner,  Edmund  de  S.  Cooperation  in  Coopersbiirg.  1917. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.     50  cents. 

Brunner,  Edmund  de  S.  The  New  Country  Church  Building. 
1917.  Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.  75 
cents. 

Earp,  Edwin  L.  The  Rural  Church  Movement.  1914.  Metho- 
dist Book  Concern,  New  York.     75  cents. 

Mills,  Harlow  S.  The  Making  of  a  Country  Parish.  1914. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.    50  cents. 

Morse,  Richard.  Fear  God  in  Your  Own  Village.  1918.  Henry 
Hoh  &  Co.,  New  York.    $1.30. 

Vogt,  Paul.  The  Church  and  Country  Life.  1916.  Missionary 
Education  Movement,  New  York.     $1.25. 

Wilson,  Warren  H.  The  Church  at  the  Center.  1914.  Mission- 
ary Education  Movement,  New  York.     50  cents. 

Wilson,  Warren  H.  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country.  191 1, 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.    40  cents. 

Industrial  Relations 

Abbott,    Grace.      The    Immigrant    and    the    Community.     1917. 

Century  Company,  New  York.    $1.50. 
Antin,  Mary.      The  Promised  Land.      1912.      Houghton,   Mifflin 

Company,  Boston.     $1.75. 
Burritt,  Arthur  W.    Profit  Sharing.     1918.    Harper  &  Brothers, 

New  York.     $2.50. 
Carlton,  Frank  T.    History  and  Problems  of  Organised  Labor. 

191 1.     D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  Boston.    $2.00. 
Cole,  G.  D.  H.    Self  Government  in  Industry.     1918.     Macmillan 

Company,  New  York.    $1.75. 
Fitch,  John  A.     The  Steel  Workers  (Pittsburgh  Survey).     1910. 

Charities  Publication  Committee,  New  York.    $1.50. 


212  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Goldmark,  Josephine.  Faligitc  and  Efficiency.  1912.  Russell 
Sage  Foundation,  New  York.     $2.00. 

Ilaynes,  George  E.  Ncyru  Nczv-Cuuiers  in  Detroit,  Michigan. 
1918.     Home  Missions  Council,  New  York.     20  cents. 

Kelley,  Florence.  Modern  Industry  in  Relation  to  the  Family. 
1914.     Longmans,  Green  &.  Co.     New  York.     $1.00. 

Mangano,  Antonio.  The  Sons  of  Italy.  1917.  Missionary  Edu- 
cation Movement,  New  York.     60  cents. 

Redfield,  William  C.  The  New  Industrial  Day.  1912.  Century 
Company,  New  York.     $1.25. 

Ross,  J.  E.  The  Right  to  Work.  191 7.  Devin-Adair  Company, 
New  York.     $1.00. 

Ryan,  John  A.  A  Living  Wage.  1906.  Macmillan  Company, 
New  York.     $1.25. 

Shriver,  William  P.  Immigrant  Forces.  1913.  Missionary  Edu- 
cation Movement,  New  York.     60  cents. 

Symposium  by  seven  well-known  authors.  The  Path  of  Labor. 
1918.  Council  of  Women  for  Home  Missions,  New  York. 
57  cents. 

Ward,  Harry  F.  The  Gospel  for  a  Working  World.  1918. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.     60  cents. 

Ward,  Harry  F.  The  Labor  Movement.  X917.  Sturgis  & 
Walton.     New  York.     $1.25. 

Ward,  Harry  F.  Poverty  and  Wealth.  191 5.  Methodist  Book 
Concern,  New  York.     50  cents. 

Ward,  Harry  F.  Social  Evangelism.  1915.  Missionary  Edu- 
cation Movement,  New  York.     50  cents. 

Warne,  Frank  J.  The  Slav  Invasion  and  the  Mine  Workers. 
1904.     J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia.     $1.00. 

Women  and  Children 

Abbott,  Edith.  Women  in  Industry.  191 6.  Daniel  Appleton  & 
Company,  New  York.     $2.50. 

Addams,  Jane.  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets.  1909, 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York.     50  cents. 

Henry,  Alice.  The  Trade  Union  Woman.  1915.  Daniel  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  New  York.     $1.50. 

Fraser,  Helen.  Woman  and  War  Work.  1918.  G.  Arnold 
Shaw,  New  York.     $1.50. 

MacLean,  Annie  M.  Wage-Earning  Women.  1910.  Macmillan 
Company,  New  York.     $1.25. 

MacLean,  Annie  M.  Women  Workers  and  Society.  1916.  A. 
C.  McClurg,  Chicago.     50  cents. 

Mangold,  George  B.  Child  Problems.  1917.  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, New  York.     $1.25. 

Schreiner,  Olive.  Woman  and  Labor.  191 1.  Frederick  A. 
Stokes  Company,  New  York.    $1.25. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  213 


The  Church  and  Social  Conditions 

Atkinson,  Henry  A.  The  Church  and  the  People's  Play.  1915. 
Pilgrim  Press,  Boston.     $1.25. 

Cutting,  R.  Fulton.  The  Church  and  Society.  1912.  Macmillan 
Company,  New  York.     $1.25. 

Felton,  Ralph  A.  A  Study  of  a  Rural  Parish.  1915.  Mission- 
ary Education  Movement,  New  York.     50  cents. 

Gates,  Herbert  W.  Recreation  and  the  Church.  191 7.  Uni- 
versity Press,  Chicago.     $1.00. 

Harrison,  Shelby  M. ;  Tippy,  Worth  M. ;  Vv^ard,  Harry  F. ;  and 
Atkinson,  Henry  A.  IVhat  Every  Church  Should  Know 
about  Its  Community.  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  New 
York.     10  cents. 

Hughan,  Jessie  W.  The  Facts  of  Socialism.  1913.  John  Lane 
Company,  New  York.     75  cents. 

Mangold,  George  B.  The  Challenge  of  St.  Louis.  1917.  Mis- 
sionary Education  Movement,  New  York.     60  cents. 

Marsh,  Daniel  L.  The  Challenge  of  Pittsburgh.  1917.  Mis- 
sionary Education  Movement,  New  York.     60  cents. 

Mathews,  Shailer.  The  Individual  and  the  Social  Gospel.  1914. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.     25  cents. 

Rauschenbusch,  Walter.  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis. 
1907.     Macmillan  Company,  New  York.     50  cents. 

Rauschenbusch,  Walter.  The  Social  Principles  of  Jesus.  1916. 
Association  Press,  New  York.     50  cents. 

Roberts,  Richard.  The  Church  in  the  Commonwealth.  1918. 
Frederick  A.   Stokes  Company,   New  York.    $1.00. 

Spargo,  John.  The  Spiritual  Significance  of  Socialism.  1912. 
B.  W.  Huebsch,  New  York.    50  cents. 

Vedder,  Henry  C.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  and  the  Problem  of 
Democracy.     1914.     Macmillan  Company,  New  York.     $1.50. 

White,  Charles  L.  The  Churches  at  Work.  1915.  Missionary 
Education  Movement,  New  York.    60  cents. 


INDEX 


Accidents,  in  mining,  72,  73; 
in  steel-mills,  85,  86;  on  rail- 
roads,   99-xoi 

Actors,  Church  Alliance  and 
Fund,   130;  off  the  stage,  128 

Anthony,  Susan  B.,  referred  to, 
162 

Anthracite   coal   areas,   69 

Anti-loafer  laws,  152 

Apathy  of  mill  workers,  91 

Arbitration  in  clothing  indus- 
try,  60,   61 

Architecture  and  present  use 
of   steel,   79-81 

Artificial   flowers,    132 

B 

Bag  and  hemp  factory  condi- 
tions,  165 

Baker  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany,  93 

Banana  boat  and  rush  unload- 
ing,  137 

Baptist  East  Side  churches  in 
New  York  City,   205 

Bargains  in  ready-made  cloth- 
ing,  55 

Bathtubs    and    buttons,    114 

Beet,  culture,  20,  174,  175;  sugar, 
20;  use  of  child  labor,  20,  21, 
174.   175.  185 

Bessemer  steel,  82-84 

Bible,  study  class  members, 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  4,  5 ;  unopened 
to  Jewish  radicals,  62 

Billy    Sunday   meetings,    195 

Bituminous  coal  fields,  69 


Booth,  Maud  Ballington,  re- 
ferred to,   162 

Brakeman,  accident  to  a,   100 

Brick  and  mortar  not  the  soul 
of   the   city,   33 

Bridge   cables,   steel,   82 

Bur  ley  tobacco,  173 


Canada,    western    grain-belt,    17 
Cane-sugar  makers,  18,  19 
Casual    workers    and    the    com- 
mon man,   153 
Casualty  lists.     See  Accidents 
Catholics,  90,  120,  194,  196 
Cemeteries,    well-tended    West- 
ern, 27 
Chaplain  beloved,  a,  203 
Chicago,    Industrial    Exhibition, 
picture     of     a     mother,     58; 
stock-yards,    150 
Child  labor,  in  agriculture,  174- 
185;   in  home  work,  58;   rea- 
sons   for,    176;    task    of    the 
church,   187-189 
Child  Labor  Law,  Federal,  very 
helpful     but     unconstitutional, 
185 
Child  Labor,  National  Commit- 
tee on,   188;   Sunday,   188 
"  Children       in       Agriculture," 

quoted,    175 
Children's   Bureau  ir   Washing- 
ton,  D.   C,  90 
China,  actors  in,  130 
Christ.     See  Jesus  Christ 
Christmas-time   work,    139 
Church,    duty    of,    197 ;    respon- 
sibility,    151,     152;     statistics 


215 


2l6 


INDEX 


of  per  cent,  of  working  peo- 
ple, 194;  work,  past  and 
present,  28,  191-209;  with 
country  people,  27-32;  with 
factory  folks,  46-48;  with 
garment  makers,  62,  63 ;  with 
miners,  75-78;  with  rail  and 
vessel  forces,  109-111;  with 
steel  workers,  91-^4;  with 
Tampa  cigarmakers,  122,  123; 
with  theater  people,  130; 
with  transient  classes,  150- 
153;  with  women  and  chil- 
dren,   169-171,    187-189 

Churches,  criticism  of,  194; 
faulty  distribution  of,  127;  in- 
difiference   to,    195 

Cigarmakers,  116-120;  social 
worker's   story,    125 

City  and  country  life  depicted 
and  distinguished,   i,  23,  24 

City   church    statistics,    194 

Clothes  and  civilization,  34 

Clothing  industry,  54;  labor 
troubles  in,  58-61  ;  materials, 
34-36 

Coal,  importance  of,  65,  66; 
mining  methods  and  miners, 
67-74 

CcBur  d'Alene  district,  Idaho,  68, 
75 

Cold  storage,  178 

Conservation,  of  fuel,  11;  of 
wheat,  18 

Consumers'  League,  52,  171 

Cooper  Union,  New  York  City, 
a  social  center,  62 

Cooperation,  170,  184;  among 
the  churches,  200 

Copper,  68,  69,  74 

Corn   and   hogs,   price   of,  21 

Corn   belt,   21 

Cost   of    living,   9,    178 

Cotton,  36,  2>7 ;  importance  in- 
creased by  the  invention  of  the 
cotton-gin,  37 

Cotton-mills  and  workers,  in 
Northern  cities,  34,  44-46;   in 


Southern   towns  and  villages, 

40-43,   47 
Coxey's  army,   135-137 
Cuban   trait.^,    121 


D 


Dressmaking   industry,   53 

Du       Page       County,       Illinois, 

Presbyterian  Church,  206 
Duty  of  the  church,  the,   197 


Early   ambitions,    3 

Early  Christians,  influence  of, 
203 

Effects  of  specialization  in 
work,  7 

Efficient  women  in  war  and 
other  work,  159-165 

Eliot,    George,    referred    to,    162 

Engineer,  the,  and  the  world 
war,  98-iOT ;  wish  to  renew 
service,  99 

Evansville,  Wisconsin,  Manu- 
facturing   Company,   93 


Factory  system,  7 
Fall    River    factories,   34 
Farm  life,  23 

Fashion    and    clothes,    a    shop- 
girl's comment,  51 
Fatalism   of   steel-mill  workers, 

91 

Feudal  castles  and  modern 
mills  compared,  33 

Fictitious  barriers  in  society, 
204,  205 

Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City, 
49,  61 

Film  making.  43,  131,  132 

"  Fine  art  of  living,  the,"  6 

Fire  and  coal,  65 

Fishing  village  preacher's  re- 
port, 3,  4 


INDEX 


217 


Food-producing  industries,  21 
Ford     Hall,     Boston,     a    social 

center,  62 
Foreign     element     on     Western 

farms,  27 
Formaldehyde  used  in  a  church, 

151,  152 
French     Revolution     conditions, 

179 
Fuel   administrator,   66 
Furs,    126 
Furuseth,     Andrew,     work     for 

the  sailors,   108,   109 


Garment  makers,  51-53,  57-63 

Garment  Makers'  Union,  New 
York   City,   50 

Garment  workers  in  New  York 
City,   49,    50,    S3,    55-58,   61-63 

Gentleman,  deeper  than  out- 
ward marks,  204 

Girl  clerks'  wages  affected  by 
"  pin-money  "  competitors,  164, 

i6S 

God,  question  of  an  immigrant 
woman,  191 ;  work  for  the 
community,  209 

Gold  and  silver  mining,  69 

Government  ownership  of  rail- 
roads, 106 

Grain  belts  of  Canada  and  the 
United  States,  17 

Group  needs  and  the  church, 
13,   14 

H 

Havana   and    Key  West,    116 
Health    of    garment    workers,  56 
Henry,  Miss  Alice,  quoted,  162, 

165,    166 
Herring,    Rev.    Hubert    C,    re- 
ferred to,  27 
IHome,  importance  of,  156;  work 

conditions,  57 
Home    mission    work,    pressing 
need   for,  30 


Hookworm,  41 

Hoover,    Mr.,    18 

Housing     conditions     and     the 

cost    of    living,    9 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  referred  to, 
162 


Idaho,    labor   legislation   in,    146 
Immigrant,     mill     workers,    89; 

woman  and  God,  191 ;  women 

in  Saint  Louis,   166 
I.  W.  W.,  code,  142;  efforts  in 

East  Tampa,  121 ;  street  song 

in    Seattle,    141,    142 
Industrial,        army,        questions 

raised,     135 ;    classes    created, 

8 
Inefficiency,   causes   of,    148 
"  Infant  Mortality  "  statistics,  90 
Institutional  churches,  203 
Interdependence,   10 
International     Seamen's    Union, 

108 
Interstate    Commerce    Commis- 
sion, 105 
Iron,  69,  80-83 
Italians,  49,  56,  57,  63,  (>7 


Jesus    Christ,    12,    187,    200-202, 

204,  209 
Jewelry    industry,    132 
Jewish    characteristics,    54 
Jews,  49,  53-56,  62,  63,   194 
Johnstown,     Pennsylvania,     mill 

workers,  89 
Judson         Memorial         Baptist 

Church,    New    York    City,    (ij, 
Juvenile   court    case   in    Tampa, 

Florida,  122 


K 


Kelly,   Mrs.   Florence,   referred 
to,  52 


2l8 


INDEX 


Kercnsky,  mistake  of,  22 
King,  Henry  Churchill,  quoted, 
6 


Landlord  and  tenant,  25 

Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  cot- 
ton-mills, 34 

Lead  and  zinc,  68,  69 

Life  in  the  Southern  mill  vil- 
lage, 40-44.  47 

Livermore,  California,  railroad 
wreck,  pq 

Loom,  contrast  between  earlier 
and  later,  36-38 

Lovejoy,  Owen  R.,  quoted,  186; 
referred  to,  188 

Lowell,  ^Massachusetts,  cotton- 
m.ills,  34 

Loyalty,  labor's  lack  of,  7 

Lumber  companies  of  the 
Northwest,  bad  conditions 
for  laborers,    144,   145 

Luxuries,  defined,  114,  115;  ex- 
amples of  producers  of,  116- 
134;  harmless  and  hurtful, 
115 

M 

Machinery,     37 ;     has     subordi- 
nated  man,   46 
Mclntire,    Miss    Ruth,    quoted, 

175 

Manufacture  of  clothing  ma- 
terials, 35,   36 

Maverick  Church  in  East  Bos- 
ton,   205 

Men,  as  users  of  clothes,  34; 
as    creators    of    things,    15 

Metal  mine  workers,  74 ;  wages. 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
New  York  City,  picture  re- 
ferred to,  84 

Michigan  Central  Railroad  ac- 
cident,   100 

Migratory  workers,  143 

Millinery,    132,    139 


Mills    and    workers,    33-47;    ex- 
perience of  a  family,  44,  45 
Mine     workers,     accidents,     72; 
forgotten,   67;    wages,    7^,   75 
Minerals,  valuable,  65,  68 
Mining  town,  life  in  a,  5,  6 
Missionary   work   at   home,    127 
Morgan  Memorial  Church,  Bos- 
ton,  198 
Morris,  William,  demand  for  joy 

in  work,  6 
Motion-pictures,      43 ;       theater 

statistics,  130-132 
Motorman  a  suicide,  107 
Municipal  ownership,  San  Fran- 
cisco, 108 

N 

Napoleon,  anecdote  of,  201 

National  Child  Labor  Commit- 
tee, 175,  181 

National  Consumers'  League,  52 

Negro  philosophy  of  work,  115; 
work  and  wages  on  sugar 
plantation,  19,  20 

Neighborliness,  11,  12 

New  York  Herald,  referred  to, 
119 

Nickel,    of    Canada,   68 

Northern  textile  workers,  44; 
Southern  groups,  40 

O 

"  Open  shop,"  45 ;  in  steel  mills, 
42 

Organization,  of  labor,  7 ;  of 
men  questioning  women's  ad- 
mission to  labor  unions,  167- 
169;    of   women   workers,   165 

Oriental  visitor's  comment  on 
American  civilization,  79 


Peace    of    the    world    and    the 
bread  question,  22 


INDEX 


219 


Philanthropy,  city,  24 

Pilgrim  mothers,   162 

"  Pin-money  "  workers  affecting 
regular  wages,  164 

Pioneers  in  the  West  and  their 
descendants,  27,  31 

Pittsburgh  has  bad  housing  con- 
ditions for  steel  workers,  89 

Play  and  relaxation,  6,  207 

Plymouth  Church,  Oakland, 
California,  205 

Professor  Parker's  report  of  I. 
W.  W.  in  California,  142 

Profit-sharing,  92,  93 


R 


Racial  and  residential  phrases 
used  by  rival  boy  groups,  g ; 
more  general  racial  groups^  55, 

Railroads,  casualty  lists,  99 ; 
churches  and,  106;  expenses 
and  profits,  103,  104 ;  govern- 
ment ownership,  106;  system 
statistics,  98 ;  work  and  work- 
ers, 99,  102 

Ranch  life,  3 

Reader  in  Tampa,  Florida,  cigar 
factory,  119 

Ready-made  clothing  bargains, 
54,  55 

"  Red  Jacket  "  mine,  74 

Restless  Americans,  95 

"  Riding  out  a  bill,"  95 

Right  to  work  a  just  demand, 
146;  helping  agencies,  147 

Robbins,  Mrs.  Raymond,  re- 
ferred to,   168 

Rochester,  New  York,  address 
at  the  City  Club,  108 

Rolling-mill,  84;   statistics,  86 

Rural    community    study,    26-28, 

30. 
Russian,    labor,    21  ;    revolution 

and  the  food  question,  22 ;  un- 
expected collapse,  183 


"  Sacred  Motherhood,"  58 

Safety  devices  for  railroad 
trains,   100 

Saint  Louis,  factory  conditions 
and  women  workers  in,  i6s. 
166 

Saint  Patrick  and  the  Irish 
snakes,   183 

Salvation  of  the  individual  the 
ultimate  aim,  208 

Scranton,  Pennsylvania,  coal  fa- 
mine in,   178 

Seattle,  song  of  the  vagabond 
workers,  139;  success  of  minis- 
ter's experiment  with  "  blanket 
stiffs,"  147 

Selfishness  and  greed  back  of 
child  labor,  176 

Serving  humanity,  133 

Silk.  35 

Sinclair,  Upton,  story  referred 
to,  150 

Skyscraper  significant  of  Amer- 
ica, 79 

Social,  centers  formed  by  the 
churches,  205-209 ;  salvation 
and  the  wage-earners,  192 

Social  Service,  Commission,  199; 
Department  of  Congregational 
churches,  26 

Socialism  and  the  church,  31 

Socialized  church  as  an  inspir- 
ing force,  202,  203 

Song  of  the  world  of  work  heard 
in  the  city's  roar,  2 

Soubrette  Row,  130 

Soul  of  the  city,  33 

Soup  kitchens,   151 

Southern  mill  village,  life  in,  40- 
47 

Spencer,  Herbert,  quoted,  6 

State  laws  for  home  work,  spe- 
cial provision  needed,  58 

State  University  rural  work  in 
Wisconsin,  26 

Steel  production,  80-89;   manu- 


220 


INDEX 


facture,    80-83 ;    statistics,    79, 

80 :   uses,  80-82 ;   workers  and 

working  conditions,  86-89 
Stencil  work  deforming  a  hand, 

iSo 
Stock-owning,  92,  93 
Stock-yards  of  Chicago,  150 
Stowe,    Mrs.    Harriet    Beecher, 

referred  to,  162 
Street-car  men's  wages,  107 
Strikes:  on  street-car  lines,  108 ; 

one  striker's  case,  45 
Student     Volunteer     Movement 

for  Foreign  Missions,  199 
Sugar-beet     culture,     20;     child 

workers  in,   174 
Sugar-cane  fields,  processes  and 

workers,  19 
Summer  use  of  furs,  126 
Sweat-shop  system,  52,  57 


Tampa,  Florida,  churches,  121- 
123;  cigar  factory,  119;  con- 
ditions, 120,  124;  statistics, 
116 

Task  system,  53 

Taylor,  Florence  I.,  effect  of 
mill   work  on   boys,    181 

Tenant   farmer,  25 

Textile  industries.  Northern  and 
Southern  wages  and  workers, 
40,  44 

Theater  as  a  medium  of  luxury, 
128-130 

Theories  concerning  the  Pyra- 
mids, 96 

"  Tired  Business  Man,"  the,  4 

Tobacco,  for  cigars,  117,  118; 
for  the  Barley  demands,  173; 
"  worming  "  done  by  children, 
173.  174 

Trade  Union  Woman,  The, 
quoted,   162,   166 

Tramp  as  a  product  of  labor 
conditions,  143-150 


Transportation,  96;  and  prog- 
ress, 97;  other  tlian  railways, 
107  ;  workers  largely  unknown 
to  us,   IC9-111 

Trappers,  126 

Triangle  Shirt  Waist  Company 
fire,  50 

Trotzky's  success  turned  on  sup- 
plying food,  22 

Tuberculosis  statistics,  124 

Typical  life  of  busy  women 
illustrated,  5 


U 


Unemployed,  problem  of,  56, 
^37;  regulation  of  industry, 
146;  war  changes,   145,   152 

Union  Garment  Makers',  50 

United  States,  Bulletin  of  Labor, 
quoted,  124:  Bureau  of  Labor, 
statistics  from,  39;  coal-mine 
statistics,  65,  66;  Public 
Health  Service,  report  quoted, 
56;  Steel  Corporation,  conces- 
sions, 92 

Urge  of  work,  the,  i 


V 


Vagabond    workers,    in    Seattle, 

139:  poem,  141 
Valuable  non-essentials,  115 

W 

Wales,  singing  by  miners  a 
means  of  progress.   141 

War,  asking  the  employment  of 
childhood,  186,  187:  require- 
ments in  communities,  207; 
talks  in  New  York  City 
churches,  205 

Washington  state,  a  parish  in, 
144 

Watered  stock,  105 


INDEX 


221 


Welfare  of  the  American  sea- 
man cared  for  by  Act  of  Con- 
gress, 109 

Welfare  work  in  mining  com- 
munities, 75,  76;  plan  for  Colo- 
rado, T] 

Wetz,  James  E.,  Chicago  egg- 
king,  178 

Wheat,  17 

Wilcox,  Ella  Wheeler,  referred 
to,  27 

Willard,  Frances  E.,  referred  to, 
162 

Williamsburg  Bridge,  cost  and 
materials,  82 

Winnipeg,  prosperity  of,  17 

Wisconsin  townships,  survey  of 
three,  26 


Woman,  former  disadvantages, 
155.  156;  present  opportunities, 
156-164 

Women,  needed  service  of  the 
church  for,  169-171 ;  organiza- 
tion of,  165-169 

Women's  National  Trade  Union 
League,  the,   168,   171 

Wool,  production  and  manufac- 
ture of,  35 

Work,  vocabulary  of,  3 

"  Wormin'  time,"  174 


Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, 77 


LIST  OF 

MISSION  BOARDS  AND 

CORRESPONDENTS 


The  Missionary  Education  Movement  is  conducted  in  behalf  of  the 
Foreign  and  Home  Mission  Boards  and  Societies  of  the  'United  States  and 
Canada. 

Orders  for  literature  on  foreign  and  home  missions  should  bo  ad- 
dressed to  the  secretaries  representing  those  organizations,  who  are  pre- 
pared to  furnish  special  helps  to  leaders  of  mission  stud/  classes  ana  to 
other   missionary    workers. 

If  the  address  of  the  secretary  of  the  Foreign  or  Home  Mission  Board 
or  Society  of  your  denomination  is  unknown,  orders  may  be  sent  to  tl.e 
Missionary  Education  Movement.  All  persons  ordering  from  the  Mission- 
ary Education  Movement  are  requested  to  indicate  their  denominations 
when  ordering. 
Advent    Christian — American    Advent    Mission    Society,    Rev.   George  E, 

Tyler,   i6o  Warren  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 
Associate   Reformed   Presbyterian — Young  People's   Christian    Union   and 

Sabbath  School  Work,  Rev.  J.  W.  Carson,  Newberry,  S.   C. 
Baptist  (North) — Department  of  Missionary  Education  of  the  Cooperating 

Organizations  of  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention,  23  East  26th  Street, 

New  York  City. 
Baptist  (South) — Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Conven- 
tion, Rev.  T.   B.   Ray,   11 03  Main   Street,   Richmond,   Va.      (Correspon- 
dence concerning  both   foreign   and  home  missions.) 
Baptist    (Colored) — Foreign   Mission   Board   of  the   National   Baptist   Con- 
vention, Rev.  L.  G.  Jordan,  701   South  Nineteenth  Street,  Philadelphia, 

Pa. 
Christian — The  Mission  Board  of  the  Christian  Church:  Foreign  Missions, 

Rev.   M.  T.  Morrill;  Home  Missions,  Rev.  Omer  S,  Thomas,  C.  P.  A. 

Building,    Dayton,    Ohio. 
Christian  Reformed — Board  of  Heathen  Missions,  Rev.  Henry  Beets,  2050 

Francis  Avenue,   S.   E.,  Grand  Rapids,   Mich. 
Church  of  the  Brethren — General  Mission  Board  of  the  Church  of  the 

Brethren,  Rev.  Galen  B.  Royer,  Elgin,   111. 
Congregational — American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions, 

Rev.   D.   Brewer  Eddy,   14  Beacon  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 
American-  Missionary  Association,  Rev.  C.  J.  Ryder,  287  Fourth  Avenue, 

New  York   City. 
C.ngrefTatioml   Elucaticn   Society,  P.ev.  Miles  B.   Fisher,    14  Beacon   St., 

Boston,   Mass. 
The   Congregational    Home   Missionary   Society,    Rev.    W"illiam    S.    Beard, 

287    Fourth   Avenue,   New  York   City. 
Disciples  <5f  Christ — Foreiirn  Christian  Missionary  Society,   Rev.   Stephen 

J.    Corey^    Box   884,    Cincinnati,   Ohio. 
The  American  Chrfetian  Missionary  Society,  Mr.  R.  M.  Hopkins,  Carew 

Building,    Cincinnati,   Ohio. 


Evangelical  Association— Missionary  Society  cf  tlie  Evangelical  Asso- 
ciation, Kev.  George  Jolinson,  1903  Woodland  Avenue,  S.  E.,  Cleve- 
land,  Ohio. 

Evangelical  Lutheran — Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  (Icncral   Coun- 
cil of  the  Evangelical   Lutheran  Church  in  N.  A.,   Rev.   George  Drach, 
Trappe,    Pa. 
Board    of    Home    Missions    of    the    General    Council    of    the    Evangelical 
Lutheran    Church   in    North-  America,    805-807    Drexel    Building,    I'hila- 
delphia,    Pa. 
Board    of    Foreign    Missions   of   the    General    Synod    of    the    Evangelical 
Lutheran   Church   in   the   U.   S.   A.,   Rev.   L.    B.    Wolff,   21    West   Sara- 
toga  Street,    Baltimore,    Md. 
Board    of    Home    Missions    and    Church    Extension    of    the    Evangelical 

Lutjieran  Church,   Rev.   H.   H.   Weber,  York,  Pa. 
Board    of    Foreign    Missions    of    tlie    United    Synod    of    the    Evangelical 
Lutheran   Church  in  the  South,  Rev.   C.   L.   Brown,  Columbia,  S.   C. 

Friends— American   Friends  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  Mr.   Ross  A.  Ilad- 
ley,   Richmond,   Ind. 
Evangelistic    and    Church    Extension    Board    of    the    Friends    Five   Years' 
Meeting,   Mr.   Harry  R.   Keates,   1314  Lyon   Street,   Des  Moines,  Iowa. 

German  Evanuelical — Foreign  Mission  Board,  German  Evangelical  Synod 
of  North  America,  Rev.   E.  Schmidt,   1.177  Main  Street,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Methodist  Episcopal — For  Mission  Study,  Miss  Inez  'Its  .k.\  i.-.,a:.iaent 
of  Mission  Study  and  Christian  Stewardship  of  the  Epworth  League,  740 
Rush  Street,  Chicago,  Illinois.  For  Missionary  Education  in  the  Sun- 
day School,  Rev.  Gilbert  Lovfland,  Department  of  Missionary  Educa- 
tion of  the  Board  of  Sunday  Schools,  58  East  Washington  Street,  Chi- 
cago,  Illinois. 

Methodist  Episcopal  (South) — The  Educational  Department  of  the 
Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  Rev. 
C.  G.  Hounshell,  8:0  Broadway,  Nasiiviile,  Tenn.  (Correspondence 
concerning  both    foreign   and   home   missions.) 

Methodist    Protestant — Board     of     Foreign    Missions    of    the    Methodist 
Protestant    Church,    Rev.    Fred    C.    Klein,    316    North    Charles    Street, 
Baltimore,    Md. 
Board    of    Home    Missions    of    tlie    Methodist    Protestant    Church,    Rev. 
Charles  H.   Beck,   507   Pittsburgh  Life  Building,   Pittsburgh,   Pa. 

Moravian — The  Department  of  J.Iissionary  Education  of  the  Moravian 
Church  in  America,  Northern  Province,  Rev.  F.  W.  Stengel,  Lititz, 
Pa. 

Presbyterian  (U.  S.  A.) — The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  Mr.  B.  Cnrter  Millikin,  Educational 
Secretary,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City. 
Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A., 
Mr.  Ralph  A.  Felton,  Director  of  Educational  Work,  156  Fifth  Avenue, 
New   York   City. 

Presbyterian    (U.    S.) — Executive   Committee    of   Foreign    Missions   of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.,  Mr.   Tohn  I.  Armstrong,  210  Union. 
Street,   Nashville,  Tenn. 
General   Assembly's   Home   Missions   of   the   Presbyterian   Church    in   the 
U.    S.,    Rev.    S.    L.    Morris,    1522   Hurt    Building,    Atlanta,    Ga. 

Protestant  Episcopal — The  Domestic  and  Foreign-  Missionary  Society  ol 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  Mr.  W.  C.  Sturgis, 
281    Fourth   Avenue,    New   York    City. 

Reformed  Church  in  America — Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  Rev.  L.  J. 
Shafer;  Board  of  Home  Missions,  Rev.  W.  T.  Demarest;  Board  of 
Publication  and  Bible  School  Work,  Rev.  T.  F.  Bayles.  25  East 
Twenty-second  Street,  New  York  City. 

Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States — Mission  Study  Department. 
Representing  the  Boards  of  Home  and  Foreign  Missions,  Mr.  John  H. 
Poorman,  304  Reformed  Church  Building,  Fifteenth  and  Race  Streets, 
Philadelphia,    Pa. 

United    Brethren    in    Christ — Foreign    Missionary    Society,    Rev.    S.    S. 
Hough,    Ottcrbcin    Press    Building,    Dayton,    Ohio. 
Home    Missionary    Society,    Miss    Lyda    B.     Wiggim,     United    Brethren 

Building,    Dayton,    Ohio. 
Young    People's    Work,    Rev.    O.    T.    Deever,    Otterbein    Press    Building, 
Dayton,    Ohio. 


United  Evangelical — Home  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  United 
Evangelical  Church  and  Board  of  Church  Extension,  Rev.  B.  H.  Niebel, 
Penbrook,    Pa. 

T-'nited    Norwegian    Lutheran — Board    of    Foreign    Missions   United   Nor* 

wegian  Lutheran  Church  of  America,   Rev.   M.   Saterlie,  425-429   South 

Fourth    Street,    Minneapolis,    Minn. 

Board  of  Home  Missions,  United  Norwegian  Lutheran  Church  of  Amer. 

ica,  Rev.   Olaf  Guldseth,  425   South  Fourth   Street,   Minneapolis,  Minn. 

United    Presbyterian — Mission    Study   Department    of    tlie    Board   of    For 

eign    Missions   of   the    United    Presbyterian    Church    of   North    America 

Miss  Anna  A.   Milligan,   200  North   Fifteenth   Street,   Philadelphia,   Pa. 

Board   of   Home   Missions   of   the   United   Presbyterian   Church   of   North 

America,   Rev.    R.   A.    Hutchison,   209   Ninth   Street,   Pittsburgh,    Pa. 

Universalist — Department   of    I\Iissionary   Education    of   the    General    Sun- 
day   School   Association,    Rev.   A.   Gertrude    Earle,    Methuen,    Mass. 
Send    all    orders    for    literature    to    Universalist    Publishing    House,    359 
Coylston  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 

CANADIAN   BOARDS 

Baptist — The  Canadian  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Board,  Rev.  J.  G.  Brown, 
223   Church   Street,   Toronto,    Ontario. 

Church  of  ENGLAND^The  Missionary  Society  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  Canada,  Rev.  Canon  S.  Gould,  131  Confederation  life  Building:, 
Toronto,    Ontario. 

CoxcREGATiONAL — Canada  Congregational  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  Misa 
Fine    Jamicson,    23    V/oodlawn    Avenue,    East,    Toronto,    Ontario. 

Methodist — Young  People's  Forward  Movement  Department  of  the  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  the  Methodist  Cluirch,  Canada,  Rev.  F.  C.  Stephen- 
son,   299    Queen    Street,    West,    Toronto,    Ontario. 

Presbyterian — Presbyterian  Church  in  Canada,  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, Rev.  A.  E.  Armstrong,  439  Confederation  Life  Building,  To- 
ronto, Ontario. 

Revised  to   19 17 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-Series  4939 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILir/ 


AA    000  900  726    1 


HN 

31 
A875m 


